Return - The Oncoming Storm
by Colum Black-Byron
Summary: Set in 45 ABY, where the current novels left off, Luke Skywalker is woken with the most terrible of visions in his life, showing a future that he can't allow to come to pass. And centered in this vision was somebody long dead, somebody who he'd mourned and let go. Anakin Solo was gone, but this being was something horrible and capable of committing genocide.
1. Chapter 1

The waves of darkness pulsed uncontrollably through Luke Skywalker, at 65 years of age, he'd felt the darkside in many different ways, but this made them all pale in comparison. He could feel it infecting him, drawing him in and fully taking him over.

His understanding and control over the Force earned him the title of Grand Master of the Jedi, but he couldn't control the anger and hatred flowing through him, and part of him wanted more, needed more, begged for more. He looked over and saw the lightning sparking and crackling through his fingers, wanting to be unleashed, wanting to inflict pain and death - and it felt good. Too good.

Glancing past his fingers, Lukes eyes narrowed on the dark figure ahead; only dark wasn't the right word, it didn't feel strong enough. Looking closer, he tried to make out the details, but only saw a haze of blue Force energy rippling in every direction. He knew on a deep level that this was wrong, but he couldn't control it, or more precisely, he didn't want to control it.

Dropping to one knee, he begged, "Teach me more master. Please."

The figure stretched a chiseled humanoid arm towards him, and the ripples intensified to a bright blue wave, shooting towards and encasing his whole body in the energy, and something ancient and incredibly powerful erupted inside of him. A power unlike anything he'd ever imagined, so much lost knowledge, and with it the darkness completely took him over.

Embracing every aspect of the darkness, the figure's plan erupted in pure clarity. He was going to start a war, a terrifying war that'd reach every aspect of the Galaxy, no system could hide from it, and none could come close to stopping him. The fog around him flashed, and a moment later he was standing next to a figure, watching a line of millions, possibly billions of beings lining up in front of a scanner. Above each was a reading of their Force sensitivity.

Without whimper or argument, each of the beings formed into separate groups, and in a flash of pain and betrayal, the group without any Force sensitivity ceased to exist.

The fog surrounded him once more, and the groups disappeared, replaced again with just the dark figure. It's voice sounded familiar, but one he hadn't heard for quite some time, he said, "It's the only way to ensure peace and control."

None of it sounded wrong, every word felt true and accurate, they needed to exterminate every conscious being that wasn't Force sensitive. There wasn't any option, the Galaxy needed this, it was truly the only way.

The familiar voice continued, "I'm coming back into this realm soon, and I'll need your help, I'll be weak and unable to fight off any attacks until I recover my strength. Protect me Uncle Luke."

The dark face cleared into immediate clarity, Anakin Solo, his dead Nephew, stood looking down on him. Looked looked up in astonishment, and saw behind the eyes, it wasn't Anakin. The presence inside the being wasn't Anakin, it was something beyond powerful, something using his Nephew's body for it's own uses. And Luke would protect that being with everything he could. He nodded and replied, "My lightsaber is yours. Everything I am is yours."

...

Feeling the droplets of cold sweat dripping down his cheeks, Luke sat bolt upright in his bed, he'd felt consumed by visions before, but this was something else. He'd wanted everything the figure wanted, needed to help, needed to be part of, of genocide. His stomach violently churned, and Luke needed to concentrate hard to avoid expelling its contents over his bunk. The revulsion at his thoughts were...

Luke took a deep breath, and called onto the Force, letting it sooth his frazzled nerves, and fill him with the reassurance and warmth it provided. He felt his heart slowing to a normal pace, and took a few more deep breaths, feeling everything return to normal. It was a vision, and the future was always in motion, the idea that he'd join with Anakin to commit genocide was ridiculous. Only, as he relaxed, more memories flashed to the surface.

He knew exactly where this being was going to be reborn, Yavin 4, directly on top Exar Kun's destroyed temple, and they didn't have long before it happened.

Without warning, another wave of fear erupted into his mind. His son Ben was now a Jedi Knight, but fear seemed to have ratted the young man to his inner core, Luke thought for a moment that he might have been reacting to the emotions radiating from himself, but the fear was too strong, too extreme. Did he just have the same vision? He'd never heard of two people sharing the same vision before.

Luke stepped off his bunk, only to see his com unit flash an incoming call, Corran Horn; but before he could answer it, another three separate icons flashed up, all Jedi Masters. Luke connected them all in a call, and watched as four holo's flashed up in front of him. Saba Sebatyne hissed, "Thiss one has had a vision."

Luke nodded gravely, then said, "Was it Anakin?"

The Barabel hissed something incomprehensible, and Jaina Solo Fel replied, "It looked like Anakin, but it couldn't have been. I could feel a presence behind the eyes that wasn't Anakin, it was a darkness that Anakin never had, even at his worse, Jacen never felt that evil. And it made me. Made me..."

Jaina's voice trailed off, replaced by Corran, "You wanted to join him, help him, his goals felt like yours?"

Nobody wanted to answer, but the looks surrounding him let him know that they all experience the exact same vision. Looking down at his com unit again, Luke saw several more call requests, slowly building up. Saba hissed, "This one feels like a hunt on Yavin, I wills leave now."

Jaina said, "Master Sebatyne, whatever this is, it's beyond any of us alone."

Luke nodded, noticing even more requests popping up, he looked at the other Masters and said, "I agree, but we can't let this Being cross realms. I'm calling an emergency meeting, we need to act fast."

The Masters nodded as Luke set to work. The vision seemed unlike anything he'd ever felt, or wanted to feel, and judging by the names appearing on his com unit, it'd spread wide and far. Possibly to all the Jedi? Everywhere?

...

Looking at the enormous forest or Yavin 4 surrounding him, Darth Plagueis felt unease creeping through his whole being, he couldn't say he feared it, but it was curious. He'd spent so much time in isolation, close to 80 years. All the time he'd been studying the Force, immersing himself in it, manipulating it, and making it's will his own. He'd been tempted to take another apprentice, but his last one had ended badly, with his own death in fact.

His desires had become far more in depth than a standard Sith, the pursuit of power and control didn't interest him anymore. After defeating death itself, the idea of controlling others seemed petty, true power came from understanding the Force itself, and in that regard, he had no rivals. Which is why he found it curious that he felt at unease. He'd learnt long ago how the conscious Force was controlled, for it to try and make him feel unease was, well, curious.

Floating effortlessly over the uneven forest floor, Plagueis cleared the trees surrounding him, to look on the destroyed temple of Exar Kun. The life of the forest still refused to grow over the mounts of stone and rubble, so he knew the essence of the ancient Sith Lord was still there, patiently waiting for his time to return. Plagueis wished he could have met Kun during the height of his power, it would have been a sight to see. Sadly, that'd never happen, Kun was merely a ghost of his previous self, and it wouldn't be long before Plagueis sent him to the other side once and for all.

Landing on uneven stones, he felt the unease swell up inside him, this was definitely curious. What was the Force trying to achieve, or was it Kun?

"Kun. Show yourself."

Nothing happened. Not that he expected it to,Kun had spent the last 4000 years hiding, and waiting,he wouldn't be stupid enough to show himself to the first being who showed himself and called his name. Kun probably wouldn't care if it took another thousand years for his next time to come around.

Looking behind him, Plageuis guided the massive bacta tank through the foliage, and set it to a stop at the direct center of the temple, he took a few steps over the uneven stones towards the tank. Then said, "You've been sustaining yourself for millennia on the stolen force potential of an entire species. The idea that a couple of Jedi Apprentices calling a small amount of light energy could destroy you is laughable."

Still no response. Plageuis had read up on all the internal documents that the Jedi published about the early days of the Jedi Academy, and Exar Kun was one of the more memorable figures. He'd then done some flow-walking and watched the events for himself. Exar Kun never evolved into something more than a Sith, even over the time he'd been hiding, the want of power and control never left his mind. It was sad really, that lifespan should have evolved Kun into something unbelievably powerful, but he just sat waiting for his time to whisper into the ears of a susceptible mind.

Still, it'd make it easier to manipulate the old consciousness. He reached down with the Force and floated up a random rock, letting it drop into his hand. He said, "Or maybe the Jedi Apprentice Corran Horn destroyed you by blowing up these rocks?"

It lasted for maybe a millisecond, but the ancient Sith slipped, he allowed the fury inside him to penetrate the cloak he'd been hiding behind. That was all Plageuis needed, snapping out like a spider trapping it's prey, he encased the essence in a Force bubble, cutting it off from anything in the outside world. With his existence betrayed, Kun didn't try to hide himself anymore, the malicious rage tried radiating from the bubble, but couldn't.

The image of the Sith appeared inside the bubble. It looked impressive, like something to be feared and respected. The image said, "If you think this." The dark and deadly eyes scanned across the invisible bubble, "Can hold me, you are greatly mistaken, I am the Sith Exar Kun, nothing can hold me. And when I am free, I'll..."

Plageuis held up a hand to silence the spirit, he said, "I find it strange, that after 4000 years of existence you can do nothing but make idle threats. You've got the Force potential of an entire race inside of you, but you fear true death so much, that you only use it to sustain a withering shell of yourself."

"You know nothing about me, I am the one and only, Exar Kun, I..."

Plagueis ignored the faceless threats coming from the disembodied spirit, and looked towards the lifeless body inside the tank, and grinned with a pleasure that Kun would never know. He'd devoted everything to understanding and experimenting with the Force, he could increase his own Force potential exponentially, could even bring himself back from death. But one thing had always eluded him, bringing somebody back to life.

He'd cloned people before, given them the same memories and experiences, but they were never the same person. He'd only ever created a new being. What he wanted, needed to do is bring a spirit back from the other realm. But such a thing was unknown to the universe. He'd spent years in meditation/time walking to try and find anything close, but nothing worked. So he needed to figure it out himself.

After his apprentice Palpatine killed him, Plagueis was so very close to becoming one with the conscious Force. He'd learnt before then how to manipulate his own midi-chlorian levels, and to make them do his bidding, and in death, he discovered his link to the midi-chlorians wasn't broken. He'd managed to keep his dead body nourished with the Force, and repaired his body enough to slip back into it, before the draw to the otherside took over, but it was very close, too close.

Weak and defeated, Plagueis managed to swap his body with another before it was cremated, and sulked out to hide, and as watched the decades past him by.

He'd cheated death, but only just. Since that point, he'd devoted himself to finding the methods to returning from the other side. Kun managed in part what he wanted to do, but he'd take death over the shell Kun had become. So Plagueis had begun experimenting, and nothing he'd done to this point managed to bring back the consciousness from the other side.

However, his latest experiment seemed to show hope. Removing the stolen Force potential from Kun wouldn't be easy, and then trapping part of his spirit in this realm, while the other part drifted to wherever it resides would be even harder. But with any luck, it'd create a bridge between the body in the bacta tank, and the side.

The body in the bacta tank he'd created, not using any traditional cloning techniques, but through the Force itself. He'd retrieved some burnt cells from a cremation site on Hapes, and excited the dormant midi-chlorians hiding inside. It'd taken time, and fierce concentration, but he'd convinced the dormant midi-chlorians that the body had never died, and they begun to repair the body, cell by cell. With the assistance of the bacta fluid, the flesh returned, and after years of growth, it appeared not as it once did, but as it would now. Anakin Solo appeared not as the 17 year old he'd died, but somewhere in his 30's, where his body would have naturally aged to since his death.

That seemed curious also, since he'd done nothing to age the body to that point.

But despite all the growth, the brain never seemed to show signs of activity, it just lay dormant, empty. He'd been paranoid a new being would be born with all the growth, but that never seemed to happen.

Still stuck inside his bubble, Kun must have noticed the body floating towards him, and said, "Did you bring me a body?"

Plagueis laughed and replied, "For you? No. What could I possibly learn from that?"

"I know Dark powered that have been long forgotten in your time, I could teach you..."

Plagueis cut him off, "If you had the powers I needed, you wouldn't be a helpless spirit stuck inside a bubble. You'd have been reborn millennia ago."

Kun begun another useless rant.

Levitating the bacta tank closer, he pushed it inside the bubble with Kun. The ancient Sith pounced exactly like he'd imagined, pushing his whole essence into the empty shell, trying to take control of it.

Plagueis told him, "The midi-chlorians don't recognise you, they won't accept you no matter how hard you try. However, they will accept the original. When you see Sidious on the other side, tell him I'm disappointed with him."

And with that, Plagueis plunged deep into the Force, almost becoming one with it. He saw everything on a level deeper than any other, saw the strings holding everything together. He could see the massive potential that held Kun to this realm, and it swirled within Anakin's body. Spotting the individual strings that connected the Sith with the Force Potential, Plagueis begun to snip away at them, breaking the long held links.

Alarm seemed to flow from the Ancient Sith, but he still tried to take control of the body, even as part of his own essence started to slip away. Now came the risky part, would this now create a bridge to the other side? Time would tell.

...

The meeting had been probably the easiest to organise, and quickest. Those close enough to come in person were there within the hour, and the rest synced up on holos. Luke hadn't found a Jedi who the vision didn't extend to, which meant the intention to be very clear. The Force was letting them know about a danger worse than any other in recorded history. And it needed to be destroyed before it could take roots in the Galaxy.

Every Jedi offered themselves to take on this threat, but Luke had ordered half of them away, getting all the Jedi in the Galaxy in the one place wasn't a smart idea. He just hoped half were up to the job.

From all corners of the Galaxy, Jedi Apprentices, Knights & Masters dropped everything and set course for the Yavin system. He'd ordered them to wait until enough numbers to arrive to take on this threat, but still, he couldn't shake the feeling that they would be too late. He'd crammed as many could fit into the Jade Shadow, and while Leia & Han did the same with the Millennium Falcon. Setting off as fast as possible towards the Moon.

The unease erupted into a magnificent fear, pulsing through his own body, and urging him from his actions. Very curious indeed. The Conscious Force really didn't want him doing this, which meant he was onto something good. It was working.

The anguished scream coming from Kun now seemed distant, and weak. The last of his essence still held onto the body, but the rest had crossed over. Now he just need to hold it in place, and wait for the original owner to come back. Once he knew it was possible, he could create similar bodies of his own, and could follow the same route back to this realm. He could do anything, be anything, and never truly die. He'd be immortal.

He couldn't say how long he waited in fierce concentration, pinning part of Kun to this realm, time didn't seem to matter, space around him like nothing.

When it happened, it happened fast. Like fierce bright lightning, an immense spirit surged through what was left of Kun, and when it arrived, the last of Kun dissipated into the unknown. Plagueis tried to follow the path, retrace the route he'd need to take, but it happened too quickly, and he got nothing. Anger swelled up inside of him, and he wanted to hurt something, anything.

Opening up his eyes, he looked down at the body he'd spent years trying to build. It'd be a good start, he could feel something there, but it felt weak, powerless. He could destroy it in an instant.

Stepping to his feet, he looked down at the body. It'd begun to move, stretching out inside the tank. Extending a hand towards the body, he let rip with an intense form of lightning, far more powerful than the traditional Sith lightning. He'd developed a way to blast through anything, rip through durasteel, lightsabers, and flesh.

Only a moment before the energy struck, a single hand smashed through the glass, and stood in the path of the energy, and...

His attack did nothing, the energy seemed to just flow into him, not so much as a burn appeared on his hand. Something weak and powerless couldn't stop that, he couldn't even stop that sort of power. What he was feeling wasn't accurate. Very curious.

He let his hand drop, and watched as the glass flung back, and the figure sat up, thick bacta fluid dripping from his sandy brown hair. Plagueis locked eyes with the new body, and asked, "Who are you?"

The body spat out a mouthful of bacta fluid, and replied in a far too even voice, "Anakin Solo."

Anakin didn't seem to be coughing, or fighting any ill effects from the transition. But still felt weak and powerless. Anakin said, "You did well recreating my body. Thank you."

"What can you tell me of the other side?"

Anakin eyes scanned the surrounding forest, looking for something, he said, "That isn't what you want to learn. If you promise me your help, I'll teach you what you really want."

"And what is that?"

"True immortality."

Plagueis's eyes widened, he'd never voiced his fears to anybody, he nodded wordlessly. Anakin continued, "They've arrived, and I'm not sure which of my abilities will work. They are mostly theory."

Plagueis's scanned the surrounding with both the Force and his own eyes, he couldn't see anything. Or feel anything. Anakin said, "I'm going to try and talk them down. If you sense fighting, meet me in the Millenium Falcon."

...

Luke was too late, the being had been born, he'd waited too long. It wouldn't live for much longer, the darkness seeping from the body was without scale, it wasn't Anakin. He expelled an unconscious command to the 60 Jedi with him, and surrounding the temple. Go.

He Force leapt forward, landing on the destroyed temple, and saw the naked body of Anakin Solo, he stood unarmed, and defenseless. With his arms wide. He looked unthreatening, but everything inside him told him it was a lie. Jedi of every Species jumped from their hiding places, and landed, surrounding the Being.

Luke called out, "You have no right to be in that body, it's an insult the the boy who once owned it."

Anakin replied, "It's me Uncle Luke, everything you are sensing is a lie. You can't trust it, the vision was a lie."

"The Force doesn't lie." Luke replied

"Your understanding of the Force is so limited, the Force itself doesn't lie, it doesn't think, it just is. The Conscious Force is different, but right now, it's not controlling what you're feeling. Something else is doing that, which you are not prepared for right now."

Luke shut his eyes for a moment, and opened them, revealing a fierce determination, "Everything you say it meant to corrupt. I can't let you leave here."

With that, Luke thumbed his Lightsaber, and stepped forward. Countless other beams of light flashed to life around him. Luke raised his above his head, and leapt forward, swinging it down towards the unarmed Being.


	2. Chapter 2

Luke was too late, the being had been born, he'd waited too long, wanted a larger force to take on the being. Yet somehow, the 60 Jedi surrounding him didn't seem like enough. Creeping through the forest, Luke could feel the hatred and loathing pulsing out in every direction. Without words, the legion of Jedi had landed and promptly surrounded the destroyed temple.

It wasn't just the numbers advantage he had on his side, he'd hand picked some of the most skilled warriors in the Jedi order. It should be a simple task to take down the being, yet the danger sense didn't let up. Every hair on his back bristled, sending shots of electricity down his back.

Knowing they'd all found positions, Luke moved first, knowing the rest of the Jedi would be moments behind him, he pulled the Force into him, and let it fill his legs, and sprung forward, through the clearing and landing like a Noghri on the destroyed temple.

Luke didn't know exactly what to expect, but the naked body of Anakin Solo somehow wasn't it. He stood unarmed, and defenseless. With his arms wide. He looked unthreatening, but everything inside him told him it was a lie, the Being was using that body as something to make them trust him, the vision said his words were the most corruptible, his words.

Luke called out, "You have no right to be in that body, it's an insult the the boy who once owned it."

At his voice, Jedi of many different species leapt forward, surrounding the Being in a tight formation. He didn't have a chance of slipping out between that many.

Luke watched the Being carefully, and noticed a moments hesitation as he spotted his Jaina standing on a bolder close to him, the eyes said it all. Anakin would never look like that towards his own sister. The Being said, "It's me Uncle Luke, everything you are sensing is a lie. You can't trust it, the vision was a lie."

"The Force doesn't lie." Luke replied

The Being shut his eyes, and seemed to take a breath, trying to calm himself, he said in a voice that almost sounded like a parent lecturing a child, he said, "Your understanding of the Force is so limited, the Force itself doesn't lie, it doesn't think, it just is. It's part of every living cell in our Galaxy."

Luke replied, "I know what the Force is, it's..."

The Being cut him off, "No, you don't know, you couldn't know what it is until you're part of it. Everything you are sensing from me is a lie. Do you really think I couldn't mask what you'd call the dark side if I wanted?"

Luke shut his eyes for a moment, and opened them, revealing a fierce determination, "Everything you say it meant to corrupt. I can't let you leave here."

"Uncle Luke, please don't, I don't want to hurt anybody here."

"I've seen the vision of what's to come if we let you leave here, the Galaxy can't take it anymore".

With that, Luke thumbed his Lightsaber, and stepped forward. Countless other beams of light flashed to life around him. Luke raised his above his head, and leapt forward, swinging it down towards the unarmed Being.

...

Tahiri Veila thought she'd be prepared for this, but seeing Anakin standing there, not as she'd known him, but as a fully grown adult, she couldn't do it. The sight of him sent pangs of regret through her body, and despite the visions, and fierce dark energy emanating from him, Tahiri couldn't do it. She couldn't kill Anakin.

She watched as Anakin and Master Luke talked back and forth, but noticed as something warm and welcoming crept through her body. The same feeling she'd always gotten from being around Anakin, the loving bond that she hadn't felt since his death. The man standing surrounded by Jedi wasn't some deathly being that'd come to destroy everything. It was Anakin. Her Anakin.

And in that moment, she knew it didn't matter what he wanted, what he was going to do. Tahiri would be at his side the entire time.

Only before she could do anything, or say something, Master Luke shot forward in a blindingly quick attack, swinging his lightsaber in a downward arc meant to cleave Anakin in two. But before the lightsaber arced down, before she could even blink, Anakin closed the gap and wrapped one hand around the hilt of the lightsaber, the other landed firmly in the Jedi Master's chest.

Tahiri heard him say, "I'm sorry Uncle Luke."

And moments later, the Jedi Master was flying backwards from the spot he'd been standing, and disappeared in the forest surrounding them. Standing surrounded by far too many Jedi, Anakin stood alone with Master Luke's lightsaber humming in his hand. Only there were too many, far too many Jedi for even Anakin to fight alone. She wouldn't make him do it alone. Thumbing her lightsaber to life, she stepped behind the closest master, Corren Horn.

'Don't'.

The voice flashed through her mind with crystal clarity, it was Anakin. But she couldn't not help. She wouldn't let him die. Not again.

She didn't get a moment to think about it though, the Jedi attacked, not one by one giving him a chance to respond, but as a massive coordinated group. The area surrounding Anakin became a glow of lightsabers, too fast and fierce for her to keep up with, Anakin was gone for...

Another four bodies went flying from the group, crashing hard into thick trunks, slumping to the ground. Another two bodies in the fight simply went limp and fell to the ground, while a flash shot up from the middle of them, too fast to make out or track. Only the group didn't seem to stop attacking. Did they not notice?

"I've missed you."

Tahiri spun around and stared into the ice blue eyes she remembered from her childhood, and couldn't think of anything to say. Since the vision, she'd convinced herself that this wasn't really Anakin, and felt the same anger as everybody at how Anakin's body was going to be used, but looking into his eyes, nothing would be able to convince that this wasn't him.

She knew he was sensing every emotion going through her, and his rouge grin flashed down, warming her from the inside. He said, "Meet me in the Falcon. Go now."

"You'll need hel..."

Before she could finish, the air around them turned into a maelstrom of dirt and stones, Anakin's hand had already flashed up in the the path of the powerful Force attack, nothing touched either of them. Seconds later, Anakin stood, his hand still facing towards the blast. Towards his sister.

Jaina yelled, "Get away from her."

She threw another wave of energy, but the air around them didn't so much as stir. But the swarm of lightsabers where Anakin had been seemed to stop, and she could feel all the eyes boring into them.

Back from where he'd landed in the forest, Grand Master Luke Skywalker landed close to the both of them, moments later Kyp Durran, Saba Sebatine, Corran Horn also stood surrounding them, lightsabers threatening. Jaina called, "Tahiri, it's not Anakin, can't you feel the hatred? Move away."

She looked around at some of the fiercest Jedi Masters surrounding them, each resolute on what they needed to do, she looked up into Anakin's eyes, he gave the slightest of nods down to her. Everything inside to her to stay and fight, she could help, he'd need help against these Masters.

'Tahiri, please. I can't protect you at the same time. I can explain everything. But go now. I'll be fine'.

The last time he'd told her to go, he'd ended up dead. Could she really do it again?

"Enough of this." Kyp's voice shouted.

Before she react, she felt a powerful force wrapping around her entire body, and milliseconds later, her body was flying away from the confrontation. Towards a massive tree - only meters before impact, she felt another Force take hold and bring her to a gentle stop. She spun around to stare at the circle surrounding Anakin, and watched in horror as his lightsaber turned off. He opened his arms and invited death.

'Go.'

Tears welling up, Tahiri watched as Kyp struck first, swinging down towards Anakin's body, and straight through it.

'Now!'

Tahiri couldn't watch anymore, pulling in every bit of Force she could muster, she turned her legs into something very unnatural, and sprung away. She ran, ran faster and fiercer than ever before, crying the whole time. Running hard, she watched as the forest around her did something very strange, it seemed to swirl and move in towards the battle, mini balls of lightning crackled and snapped in the air, sending every hair on her body on end.

She ran. Hard.

...

"Bloody Jedi. Why does everybody I know and love need to be a Jedi? I didn't choose any of this crap, why couldn't the Jedi have left me alone on Tatooine?"

Han Solo paced back and forth. He hated being out of the fight, he'd been massively outnumbered, and ordered to stay put. He wanted to argue, and fight, but it seemed in his 70's, age was finally catching up with him. It wasn't a good feeling. He'd lost so much over the years, Chewbacca, Jacen, Anakin and more friends than he'd ever been able to count. He'd had a hard life, so many fights and hard won battles were taking their toll on him physically.

He'd always been part of the action, taking part and joining in, and he figured there'd be many more battles he could help in, but his reflexes weren't what they once were, and he had to agree when something went wrong, it'd be him that'd need saving. It'd put his Leia and Jaina in more trouble. Age was something he couldn't fight.

But there was another problem, one everybody had to go running towards, he'd heard that something was taking Anakin's body and it'd be, well, like everything else over his life. Another Jedi problem that'd have horrible consequences for the galaxy. He'd seen Anakin's dead body, and watched as his son was cremated on Hapes. He was gone.

Only moments later, making his stomach twist, a resounding boom echoed out of the forest, sending a wave of leaves and dust everywhere, clogging up everything. The boom came from where Jaina and Leia had gone.

"Jedi be damned."

Han gripped his blaster and set forward, towards the boom. He might just get in the way, but he didn't give a damn. Waiting wasn't his style.

Only before he could make more than a few steps, he spotted a young blond girl running from the forest, running fast.

Han called, "Tahiri, what's happening?"

She didn't reply, but Han couldn't miss the tear soaked eyes. On Tahiri. She was one of the toughest young women he'd met. Something must have gone horribly wrong. He felt the pit in his stomach go into hyperdrive.

She ran past him, up the ramp and into the Falcon.

He stood in confusion, watching and waiting for something to happen.

"Tahiri!" He bellowed up the ramp.

He glanced towards the forest once more, and saw another young figure walking out of the forest. Somewhere in his 30's, male human, very naked, and...

Anakin.

Han's heart skipped a beat. It was Anakin, his son. Only the warnings of everybody flashed back at him, they'd all had some sort of vision that said this wasn't Anakin, only a Being that looked like him. This Thing was in the body of the son that'd been taken from him.

Han whipped up his blaster, and started pulling the trigger, sending bolts to the completely unarmed man. He had no issues with shooting first.

Only when they locked eyes, Han noticed the start of a smile on the Being's lips, and watched as his arms came up to intercept the bolts, and they disappeared into his palms. He'd seen another do that trick. Darth Vader, a lifetime ago.

Han loosened off another few bolts, but they were equally ineffective. Before he could continue, the blaster was gripped from his grasp and flung into the Falcon. The Being stepped up closer, closing the gap, Han balled up his fists, ready to take it on. But before he could do anything, the Being was on him, wrapping his powerful arms around his chest. Hugging him?

"Hi Dad."

"What?"

"It's me."

Han stared straight into the face - of his son - he felt his knees go weak. It couldn't be Anakin. He'd seen the body, his son was dead. But...

"Why are you naked?" Was all he could seem to blurt out.

Anakin chuckled, and half carried him up the ramp into the Falcon, and without pressing any buttons, the ramp slid up, and with nobody in the cockpit, the engines begun their pre-flight startup. Anakin said, "Chewie said to say hi."

Done with the startup, the Falcon begun to power up. Was Tahiri in the cockpit?

"I..."

Anakin smiled the warm smile that'd couldn't help but bring life to everything. "It's real Dad. But you're not going to believe the next thing I'm about to ask you. Is C-3PO on board? The fate of the Galaxy could rest on his metal shoulders."

"What?"


	3. Chapter 3

The return to consciousness wasn't a fun experience, saying everything hurt would have been an understatement. Luke tempted an eye open, and felt the sun boring into his eyes, sending his headache into overdrive. What in the emperors black bones happened?

He shut his eyes for a moment, and opened himself to the Force, hoping to clear some of the fog clouding up everything - only nothing happened. He tried to stretch out again, trying to feel something, anything. Almost as if he'd been shut off from the Force itself. The Being must have left some Ysalamir close when he...

What did happen?

He opened his eyes and spotted several others standing around, all nursing wounds, or very sore bodied. Luke asked, "What happened?"

Devoid of emotion, Jaina replied, "We were beaten."

Luke glanced at the other immobile bodies surrounding them, his stomach twisted and he couldn't draw on the Force to soothe it. He tried to pull his legs underneath him, but the slightest movement sent more jolts of pain throughout his body. The more he tried to stand, the more pain shot through his body, but he couldn't just leave them like that.

"Relax Master Skywalker." Corran's voice soothed from behind him, "Nobody is dead, but the more you try and move, the more it hurts. You've got to let it wear off."

Luke felt a rage surging up from inside of him, begging him to let it free, to let the unrestrained emotions take over. He took a breath and pushed them back down. "Let what wear off?"

The anger in Jaina's voice couldn't be missed, "Whatever he did is designed to slow us down. If you push yourself too hard, you'll pass out again" She nodded towards Kyp Durran's unconscious figure, "Kyp figured that out the hard way."

"Is there a Ysalamir near? I can't feel the Force."

Corran's replied, "Whatever he did is far worse than anything a Ysalamir could do."

The pounding bouncing back and forth in his head was making it harder to keep the rage at bay. Far harder than it should have been. "What do you mean?"

"It's only the light side of the Force we've been cut off from."

Luke twisted his head to look at his fellow Jedi Master, and paid for it with some intense jolts down his spine. He said, "That's not possible. You can't just shut off the light side of the Force!"

Jaina's voice had a malice to it he didn't spot earlier. "I'd have said it was impossible to take out this many Jedi unarmed, and alone, but here we are. Whatever that thing was, it wasn't Anakin, and I'm going to enjoy driving my lightsaber through his chest."

Luke almost couldn't believe his ears, and watched as Jaina managed to get on her wobbly feet, she continued, "The more you draw on the dark side, the easier it is to move."

Luke cautioned, "Jaina no, relax. Don't play into his games. Remember Jacen, remember what the dark side did to him, if you let it in, it'll corrupt you. We'll find another way."

The strength seemed to just evaporate from her again, as she sunk to the ground.

Corran said, "I starting to understand how our vision will come to pass now, for us to get out of here, we'll need to draw on the Dark Side, and even now, I can't help but wonder how he did this. I saw Kyp's lightsaber slice clean through his body, and nothing happened."

All the other looked towards him for guidance, he couldn't let anybody notice the rage boiling through him, luckily they were just as cut off from the Force. Pushing the anger from his voice, Luke said, "You can do that trick, I've seen it."

"Not that well, and I need to concentrate to do it, managing it while I'm being attacked by this sort of force would be out of the questions. Even if I could, I'd still blister and burn from it, it passed through Anakin without so much as a scratch."

Jaina snapped, "That wasn't Anakin. Calling it that is an insult to my little brother."

Corran said, "Whatever it was, it let us live, and wants us to draw on the dark side. Or sit here until we die from dehydration."

Luke asked, "I'm sure whatever 'this' is will wear off in time, we just need to be patient."

Jaina said, "And while we're being patient, and hoping that you're right, that thing is doing..." Jaina paused for a moment, "I have no idea what it's doing. Well, no, that's not correct. Nothing would have stopped Dad running here if he could have, I think that thing is on the Falcon with Dad."

Luke watched as Jaina moved her hand around, forks of lightning dancing between her fingertips. He couldn't help but wonder how close he could dance to the Dark Side without succumbing to it.

...

"Anakin!"

Tahiri stared out the view port, past the gas giant, and into the star littered sky. It looked clear and peaceful, but she knew without a shadow of doubt it was anything but. Master Skywalker hadn't put all his chips in one sabaac pot. He'd brought the StealthX Squadron along.

The StealthX's were based off the rebellion era X-wing fighters, but they left the old fighters in the cosmic dust. They had only one major drawback, the cloak hiding them from all sensors would break if the pilots tried to communicate with comms. Luckily, a few years ago, they'd discovered a way around the flaw. Fill the fighters with Jedi.

Tahiri had been a pilot with the Squadron for some time, and she knew first hand how effective they could be. The Millenium Falcon wouldn't have been able to stand up against a handful of them, but they had a whole Squadron surrounding the moon. And to make it worse, Tahiri couldn't feel the Battle Meld anymore. They'd shut her off from it. She was flying blind.

"Anakin!"

Tahiri felt the darkness emanating from Anakin before she heard his steps in the cockpit, but the warmth and love she got at the same time seemed to confuse the logical parts of her. It was him. Somehow, it was actually him.

He didn't bother looking down at the console, instead he glanced out the view port and said, "I'm counting 40 pilots out there. Shouldn't be too tricky."

He counted the numbers out there perfectly, she couldn't sense anything from them. Anybody outside of the Battle Meld shouldn't be able to sense it. Tahiri said, "They didn't have these ships before you." She choked on the words, "Before you left, it's a."

"It's a StealthX's." He brushed by her, slipping a kiss to her cheek as he jumped into the copilot seat. "You really are a sight for sore eyes. You were pretty before, but now, I mean wow."

She felt her cheeks reddening despite everything going on, before she could say anything, Han Solo clambered into the cockpit, he demanded, "Who the hell said you could fly my ship?"

Anakin tapped a few buttons, and replied, "I told her to. Sorry Dad, we just didn't have enough time to wait. Everybody seems very determined to kill me."

Han demanded, "Why is that?"

"The answer to that is a long one that I don't have time to answer right now, and will just give you more questions." Anakin's eyes narrowed out the viewport, "How long has Mum been flying fighters for? I don't know how I missed that."

Tahiri answered, "Master Saba Sebatyne decided she shouldn't be on the ground when you came back, said she needed more practice with the battle meld. She said the same about me as well."

Anakin flashed her that famous Solo grin, and said, "I'm glad you didn't listen."

Almost as if on cue, Leia's voice flashed over the intercom, making her StealthX position show up on the scanners at the same time, "Han! What's going in there. Are you alright?"

Anakin motioned for Han to take the comms. He walked up and pressed a button, "I honestly have no idea."

"What do you mean?"

Anakin answered, "Hi Mum."

The comms went silent for a moment. A far too composed voice replied back, Leia said, "Anakin, turn the ship around and we can talk about this. It doesn't need to end badly."

"I tried to talk it out on the ground, nobody down there seemed to want to listen."

"I'm sorry about that, but we can work something out, you don't need to fly away. Please."

Anakin seemed to sink a little in his seat, he lost some of the energy from his voice, "Mum, tell the Saba, Sanola and Tesar if they don't turn their Shadow Bombs around, I'll take control and send them back myself."

The pause on the other end said it all. Anakin continued, "I honestly thought you would have recognised me for who I am. I'm not bluffing with the bombs."

Leia's voice called out frantically, "Han get in the escape pod now!"

The cockpit door slammed shut behind them. Anakin stood climbing out of the co-pilot seat, he motioned for Han to have a seat, "Fly towards the second moon, and work out the first hyperspace jump you can. I don't care where."

Tahiri didn't argue, she spun the controls and shot the Falcon full speed towards the second moon. Anakin's voice almost sounded worried, he said, "Wait, they haven't figured out how to put the interdictors on the Stealths yet, have they?"

Tahiri stared at him for a moment, "What are you talking about?"

Anakin smile flashed back at her, sending another wave of warmth through her body, "I'm still getting used to time working in order again, it's a little muddled up."

"Very curious."

Tahiri almost jumped out of her seat. Her hand flashed towards her lightsaber, at the same time pulling it towards her hand with the Force. Within a second, it was humming at the ready. Sitting in the fourth spare chair in the cockpit was a Muun, his elongated face staring at her with a quizzical look. Tahiri demanded, "Where did you come from?"

Noticeably later, Han's hand shot toward his empty holster, "What is going on?"

Anakin demanded, "Tahiri, stop. This is Darth Plagueis, he brought me back, I invited him aboard."

Han replied, "I've heard of him before, he was Emperor Palpatine's Sith Master. He should also be dead."

Anakin's voice seemed to take over the whole cockpit, silencing any argument, 'I'm currently in a of tug of war with no less than 30 shadow bombs. Can we talk about this later?"

Plagueis's voice sounded like he'd been having a lazy day by the beach, "Would you like me in one of those quad cannons I saw on my way in?"

Anakin replied, "No. I don't want any Jedi dying."

Tahiri asked, "But you said you were going to send the bombs back to where they came from."

"And I will, but I'm not going to make them blow. We're going to need every Jedi we can get." He paused for another moment, sweat trickling down his almost perfect cheek, "They're trying to overwhelm me with shadow bombs, I'm counting about 60."

Han steps echoed towards the cockpit door, and a thump came from the door release button, only no door movement followed. She heard more tapping going on from keypads next to the door.

Tahiri noticed a warm light touching against her skin, she stared at Anakin and saw a slight glow radiating from his body. Shock rang through Tahiri, she'd seen this before, while he'd been fighting to his own death, it'd given him incredible power, but it'd been killing him cell by cell.

"Relax Tahiri, I can control it now, well sort of. Could you stab me with your lightsaber?"

Tahiri didn't think she'd heard him right, he couldn't be serious, stabbing him with her lightsaber. She wasn't going to...

Before she could even think a second longer, the lightsaber shot from her hand, and landed in the outstretched hand of Plagueis, he didn't hesitate, swinging it down and onto Anakin, and slicing straight through him and out the other side. Without leaving any sort of mark?.

Anakin's voice didn't fault, "Tahiri, you really need to be flying right now."

The comms shouted again, Leia would be feeling every emotion going through the meld, her voice had taken on a shake that wasn't like her, "Anakin, stop this. You'll kill everyone of them."

"I told them what would happen."

"Anakin, please!"

"Mum, I'm sorry about all of this. It'll make sense soon."

"Anakin!"

Milliseconds later, the hyperspace computer beeped with it's lock on a safe route, and the lever shot to the ground with a wave of the hand from Anakin, making the stars around them stretch into starlines.

Anakin seemed to sink into his chair again, visibly worn out, and the darkness that had been coming from him seemed to evaporate. He felt, well, like Anakin always felt.

"Okay, before you all start throwing questions at me. Dad, do you have any clothes I could borrow. And some food, you can't believe how much I've missed food."

...

"Thiss one does not understand." Saba hissed through Leia's intercom.

Leia searched her feelings, trying to look through the hatred and fog she'd been sensing from her son? This wasn't making any sense to her either, it just felt wrong somehow. Anakin had just won a mental tug of war against an entire battle meld of Jedi, what she would have called an impossible task.

Saba continued, "Why did he not hide hiss Force power, surely hess knew that hatred and rage would spur us on to attack more?"

Leia nodded, "Jacen could project a Force presence at will, if this, whatever he is, was powerful enough to defeat everybody on the ground, and then us. I doubt he'd have trouble at least hiding his Force presence."

"This one agreees that something is wrong here."

Before Leia could think anymore, she felt something far more disturbing from her twin brother and daughter. They were both flashing with incredible power, but it didn't seem to resonate with the light energies she'd always associated with them. She couldn't call it the dark side, but it definitely wasn't light either.

...

"Okay kid, you've got clothes and food. It's time to explain yourself. And if you try to hug me again, I'm going to shoot you."

Han tried to glare down at Anakin, but he couldn't keep the rage inside of him. It could be the old age making him more sentimental, but Anakin was actually sitting in front of him. It'd been 13 years since his son died, and part of himself had never fully recovered, and parts of him wanted more than anything for this to be true. Probably wanted it to be true a little too much.

"There is so much happening right now, could you narrow it down a little?"

Han tried to ignore the Sith sitting opposite on his Sabaac table, Anakin would have never teamed up a Sith before. Han started with the basic, "How are you back?"

The Munn replied before Anakin could, "I believe that was my doing actually."

"I'm sorry Plagueis, but your part in my resurrection was very minor. The price to send me back was," Anakin seemed to trip on his words, "High."

"Surely you wouldn't call Exar Kun a high price?"

Anakin shook his head, "Not Exar no. To understand the price, you need to understand the conscious Force. The Force itself is just a telepathic bond between all cellular life, there's no brain, no intelligence. It just is. It can't give you a danger sense, premonitions, guide you or anything like that. When people say may the Force be with you, they are talking about the conscious Force."

Han had been around Jedi for the majority of his life now, he'd never mention one of them say something about a conscious Force.

"The conscious Force is a combined consciousness of every single Jedi who's pass on, good and evil, from eons ago, to those who just died. They are the ones who are helping guide lightsaber battles, and guide a Jedi to make a decision, good or bad. The power needed to cross realms, and take up a physical body," Anakin seemed to choke on the words, "Over a million lights were extinguished. Not like me when I was killed, I passed on, they just ceased to exist."

Tahiri asked, "Why were you sent back?"

"Something very bad is coming. Something that will wipe out every bit of organic life in this Galaxy." Anakin seemed to brighten up as the clanging of metallic feet approached.

"Master Anakin?"

Anakin jumped to his feet and rushed to the very old protocol Droid, he said, "And here's the Droid that's hopefully going to save all of our necks."

The droid threw up it's arms in a dramatic motion, "Oh my."

Han couldn't take this any longer, he exclaimed, "How on Corellia is Goldenrod here going to save our necks?"

Anakin smiled and stared back at the large and empty photoreceptors, "See-Threepio, do you want to know who your original maker was?"

"My maker? I. Of course I do."

"My grandfather, Anakin Skywalker, he built you while he was only a boy on Tatooine. Only the Conscious Force was scared of what you'd become, so before he could finish with you, they intervened by sending two Jedi and my Grandmother to whisk him off planet." Anakin stepped back as his eyes scanned the droid up and down, "And one of my first jobs here is to finish what he started."

"Oh my."


	4. Chapter 4

Jaina let it all in; all the pain, love, hatred, fear, lust and the rage. Oh Gods she let the rage in.

She'd always been exceptional at keeping her emotions at bay, or at least keeping them apart from the Force. It always seemed the easiest way to stop the Dark Side from creeping through, but right now, there wasn't time for control, there wasn't enough time to figure out how this would worked. That Thing was on board the Falcon with her Father, twisting, and turning his will.

She paced back and forth, sucking in the Force sending it to every part of her body, then sucking more in. Stretching out, she spotted a boulder on the ground, a quick flick of her wrist sent it flying into the tree line, and rolling out of sight.

The power felt incredible, like somebody just turned the lights on. It was no wonder Jacen found it all so irresistible...

Jaina's last memory of Jacen flashed into her mind, he'd been at the height of his power as Darth Caedus, and she'd attacked him. He'd opened the door, and she'd stabbed him with her lightsaber.

The power surging through her veins was incredible, if Jacen had even a fraction of this, then it wouldn't have been too much for him to defeat her, she knew her limits, and like this, she would have been undefeatable.. Unless he let her win?

She felt wet drops forming in the corner of her eyes, and sucked in air through her nose to stop that running too. Not now damnit. She tried to push the emotions back, but it didn't work, she couldn't stop them. Why couldn't she stop it?

She'd opened up her rawest emotions and summoned all the Dark energy she could muster, and it made her cry? This wasn't right. When Jacen turned into a Sith, it destroyed him, turned him into a monster. Why was the same thing just making her cry?

She'd been bottling everything up for so long, keeping it locked in the back of her mind, and just waiting for time to pass, and her to forget. However, there wasn't enough time that could pass for her to forget. She'd never forget.

Blinking through cloudy vision, Jaina stood to her feet, pointing her palms to the ground and simply let go. She dropped any mental barriers she'd formed; any defences to the Dark Side, inhibitions; everything and just breathed. She didn't consciously summon the Force, it just seemed to come from nowhere, and fill an emptiness she didn't even know was there.

She shut her eyes, and the world flashed up at her in excruciating detail. She narrowed onto the smallest cell in a part of some moss on the ground, watched as it shared and linked with the cell next to it, forming into something more. She followed the flow and links of the living cells, as it merged with more life, turning into a wave that pulsed from one cell to another, giving strength and support to all the other life.

The energy swarmed clear as day, danced between everything living, and she followed the energy into the Jedi surrounding her. Watching as the waves concentrated and flowed into the bodies surrounding her - and suddenly, she understood everything about the Jedi - it wasn't their ability to control the Force that made them special, it was so much more.

If the Force as a flame, the individual cells in the moss were a candle; able to extend and give warmth to each other; in the Jedi surrounding them, it was a fierce furnaces. Some like Master Luke & Kyp were brighter still. Almost as if the Jedi were magnets, the Force clung to them, and was sucked up from all life. Only, there wasn't a light or dark side to the energy.

She took another breath, and focused on herself, saw the fire as it danced between her cells, and built into something breathtaking. She was incredible.

Stretching out her fire to the life around her, she felt them all warm to her, wanting to link and be one, she let it happen, let herself flow into the life around her, and the life to come back to her. Only as she stretched out, she looked into herself, and saw a cube surrounding part of her brain. Something that wasn't from her. Something that seemed to have a void of the Force inside of it.

She knew instantly what Anakin had done, no idea about how he'd done it, but he'd blocked the logical parts of her brain off from the Force. It wasn't an Light side he'd blocked, merely a logical part. She watched as the others used the Force, some tempting to the darkness, but the energy didn't come out as different in any way. Was there even such a thing as the Light and Dark side?

It took a mental flick and the cube dissolved, and suddenly the miraculous world around her disappeared. She tried to see it again, but it was gone. She opened her eyes and stared at the others surrounding her, all wearing expressions of fear.

Master Luke tried to sooth her, "Jaina, don't let the Dark Side consume you, it isn't part of you."

Jaina looked towards her old Master, "Actually, it is."

***...

"How is it the lightsaber doesn't hurt you?" Tahiri asked.

She watched as Anakin hunted through the utility cabinet, searching for something. He replied without looking out of the draw, "Why do you think the Jedi started using lightsabers in the first place?"

"I've read the holocrons, it was because of the adoption of personal energy shields, blasters were useless, so melee weapons were far more useful."

"Maybe a little, but that's not the real reason."

For somebody who'd been a recluse for the past 70 years, Plagueis stepped into the conversation far too smoothly. "I've flow-walked to the times the first lightsabers were around, the young Jedi is quite correct."

Anakin pulled out of the cabinet, holding a small vibroblade. He shook his head, "You've seen what we wanted you to see, nothing Jedi originally used the lightsabers because they couldn't use it against each other, but in the course of a few too many Jedi-Sith purges, the technique was forgotten."

Anakin eyes seemed to narrow onto a muscular part of his arm, he continued as if only partly interested, "It's really not that hard of a technique to learn, however, you have to know what you're doing before you stab yourself with a lightsaber."

Without any warning, Anakin swung the vibroblade down and slid it through part of his forearm, talking off part of the flesh. His face flashed with a momentary pain, but the wound didn't bleed, and a wave of his hand started a very slight glow emanating from the open wound. Anakin looked up at Plagueis and said, "You've had more experience than me manipulating Midi-Chlorians, could you trick this into believing it brain material, only far more dense?"

Plagueis gave the flesh an unsure look. "I'm not sure what you mean, could you show..."

Anakin's eyes narrowed on the Sith Lord, a deadly malice creeping into his voice, "Don't play games with me. You've done this before, and let it go wild to see what would happen, and if I didn't come back it would have eventually destroyed everything."

Plagueis didn't show a hint of emotions. He said, "Very well."

Tahiri felt every flash of emotion coming from Anakin, he wasn't even trying to hide it like Darth Caedus did, the anger and rage beneath the surface couldn't be missed. She asked, "What am I missing here?"

Anakin seemed to take a breath, and the rage coming from him seemed to dissipate, he said, "When Plagueis died, he clung to the midi-chlorians in his body, but he crossed over far enough to discover the conscious Force, saw the network of Jedi and Sith manipulating this realm. Since then he's done his best not to trust them, and not to follow any warning steering him in other directions."

"The Conscious Force has tried to kill me several times. Unsuccessfully mind you."

Anakin shot the Sith Lord another look, he said, "Do you actually think if the Conscious Force wanted you dead, you'd still be alive right now?"

"There has been several attempts, Jedi stumbling onto me, Yuuzhan Vong cruisers just happening to break down near my base. If that wasn't attempts, then what was?"

"The problem with the Conscious Force is the amount of individuals minds in there, they will always be disagreements. The only reason you haven't had a hyperdrive dying in the middle of nowhere, or a virus mutating into something deadly, is simply because we needed you to bring me back."

Anakin continued, "Hell, if I didn't change their minds, the Yuuzhan Vong would be controlling the Galaxy right now, and we wouldn't be in this mess."

Tahiri asked, "Why would the conscious Force be helping the Yuuzhan Vong?"

Anakin's shoulders slumped, "The Yuuzhan Vong were the only ones capable of actually defeating what's coming, if they had the resources of the entire galaxy behind them, they would have had a good chance of surviving. And if I had my way again, I'd have let them win."

Han growled, "The Yuuzhan Vong killed 300 trillion sentient beings during the war, and you expect me to believe that was better?"

Anakin's body turned to face his Father, he said, "After they conquered the galaxy, wiping out far more than 300 trillion, their numbers would have been diminished and spread out, they would have turned the surviving species to their way, and come to a form of peace with this Galaxy. With what was left behind the Yuuzhan Vong, they would have had a chance of beating what's coming. The Galaxy would have survived and had a chance to rebuild.

"And right now, I don't think I can do it, and if I do actually manage it, the Vong way might have been preferable."

*****...

Leia had never felt her daughter like this before, even after Anakin's death when she'd touched darkness, it'd never been this raw. But she couldn't call it evil either, just raw, and uncontrolled.

As she pulled the Stealth X around into the clearing, swinging it in for a landing, she laid eyes on her daughter. She didn't look hurt, or damaged in any way, but something was different, and nobody else was waiting near her.

Leia had never been much of a pilot, she'd co-piloted in the Falcon many times, but never really solo flying. Her Master Saba Sebatine insisted that she needed more training in a fighter, honing her skills, but Leia knew it was more to keep her off the ground when whatever it was returned. Even if it wasn't her son, she wouldn't be capable of raising her lightsaber against something that looked identical. So she hadn't put up too much of an argument. Not that an argument would work against Saba anyway.

Cracking open the canopy, Jaina stood waiting on the wing. She said, "Mum, I need the Stealth X, I know where he's going."

"Jaina, think for a moment. He was up against an entire squadron of Stealth X's up there, and he was toying with us, and down here he beat everybody unarmed, within a minute. What chances do you have?"

"He made a big mistake, he tried to disable us, but unlocked something so much more powerful."

Leia looked down at her daughter's stomach, the bump hadn't shown yet, "You don't just have yourself to think about anymore, you have to think about Jag, and your baby."

Leia almost thought she saw a fire behind her daughters eye, and the cold voice coming from her daughter sent chills down her spin, "You're one to talk. When did you ever put family ahead of duty? How much of my childhood were you there for? How often was I palmed off to Winter while you were off on some important mission?"

Leia had been waiting for this for quite some time, none of it was a lie. Would more of her children still be around if she had put family first?

Leia said, "Well now it's your chance to do better than me."

Jaina seemed to pause and think about that for a moment, it didn't last very long before she felt a powerful Force grip around her body pulling her up and out of the cockpit. Leia didn't fight it, Jaina said, "I'll make the Galaxy safer for my child by ridding it off a threat."

Still not fighting as she floated out of the cockpit in the grip of her daughter, Leia replied, "Do you know how many times I told myself that? Just win this battle, secure that ally, defeat this threat or that threat. And all the while you grew up without me. There will always be another threat, another battle, but you can choose to be a better Mother than I was. Don't go. Please."

Another pause. Followed by Jaina jumping into the cockpit, she replied, "I'm sorry you weren't a good mother, I really am. If I die, know I was just following your example."

And with that, the canopy sealed shut and the craft lifted off the ground and shot into the air. Leia felt her knees buckling, and she fell to the ground, tears streaming down her cheeks. Han was taken and gods knew what was happening to him right now, and her only child was rushing off on a suicide mission.

Slamming her fingers hard against the navicomp, Jaina had no idea how she knew the location she was going, but she couldn't get the system of Honoghr from her mind. After she'd taken the block from her mind, the system just jumped around her mind. It was the Force guiding her, she had no doubt. She'd unlocked a power strong enough to defeat this beast, and nothing would stop her, not even her mother.

Hovering her fingers over the initiate button, Jaina did have to pause for a moment, she was going to be a mother herself soon. It'd happened quicker than she'd initially expected, but it wasn't something completely unwanted. She hadn't even told her husband Jagged Fel yet, her mother had felt it in the Force when they'd met up on Yavin 4, but there hadn't been time for anything.

She hadn't meant to be that mean to her Mother, but the words exploded out of her mouth before she could stop them. And part of her didn't care it'd come out.

Slamming the button to the ground, the stars streaked into starlines around her. She thought about taking a few calming breaths, but the anger felt good. The Force didn't choose sides, and she could control her emotions, they didn't control her. She let the anger nourish her and waited as the Stealth X shot through the stars at unbelievable speeds.

****...

Han sat behind the controls of his ship, and watched as the navicomp kept counting down. He still couldn't decide on what was happening around him. Everything inside of him wanted to believe his son was back, but the flashes of anger he'd seen gave him doubt.

And thinking of the Emperor's black bones, Anakin stepped into the cockpit, and dropped into the co-pilot's seat putting his feet up on the dash. Anakin asked, "How are you holding up Dad?"

Han shrugged, "You tell me."

"You've been kidnapped by your dead son, on a ship with a very deadly and powerful Sith, and you can't decide if you really want to leave or not?"

"Something like that."

"You're welcome to leave at Honoghr if you want, the Noghri will look after you."

"And why am I supposed to believe you?"

"Would it help if I told you about the time I flew off without Chewie on Sernpidal, or maybe when you taught me how to rebuild my first repulsor unit."

Han couldn't help but laugh, "You managed to triple the output, sent it through the workshop roof. Gave the Falcon another beauty mark. I was furious."

"I was five at the time. Can't really blame me that much."

"I really do want to believe it's you. But I can't help but think you're not the same person."

Anakin seemed to pause for moment. He admitted, "I'm not the same person. I've shared memories with Sith who made the emperor look tame, watched as history kept repeating itself with countless Jedi versus Sith wars. So much wasted life and talent. So no, I'm not the same person, but I am your son."

Han thought about it for a moment, and gave his son another look. It wasn't just his physical appearance that'd aged, the eyes said it all, they'd been through so much, seen so much. Han asked, "So why are we going to Honogri?"

"I need a bodyguard. And somebody should be here who isn't."

"Who?"

"Time is still out of sync for me, or the present has changed from what I saw. There should have been a Force sensitive noghri on board. Everybody should have seen him as a standard Noghri bodyguard, but he'd have been watching and learning in secret. Once trained, he'll be the most loyal and fearsome protector you could imagine."

Han leant back in his seat, and stretched his feet onto the dash as well. "So what is your grand plan?"

"The visions that everybody had actually weren't that far off."

"So you're planning on committing genocide?"

Anakin didn't reply straight away, he eventually said, "How would you like to be my first Bornish Pig?"

Han turned to stare at his son, he asked, "What are you talking about?"

"Most of what I've learnt is theory, I haven't put it into practice. Would you let me fiddle with your Midi-Chlorians?"

"I'm not a Jedi, I don't have Midi-Chlorians."

"Everything has them, I just want to make yours regenerate, and multiply. See if we can do something about those wrinkles."

"I like my wrinkles, your mum says I look dignified for once."


	5. Chapter 5

"Oh, the Vong left all these behind. Fantastic!"

Tahiri watched as Anakin bounded through the lush fields, full of life and energy. Tahiri reached down, touching the round orb growing out of the ground, and felt her hand becoming heavier the closer it got the the orb. They were walking through a massive, wild field of Dovin Basals.

The Yuuzhan Vong had discovered a world poisoned by a grass that spread uncontrollably, but being exceptionally skilled biological, it took very little effort for them to eradicate the weed, and turn it into a world set to seed whatever organic life they wished. It appeared that they devoted massive amounts of land to growing Dovin Basals; the plants that had an incredible ability of creating gravitational fields, and micro-black holes.

After the end of the war, the shapers and warriors that guarded Honogri simply left. Without any local competition, the plants had thrived. They weren't the shaped and controlled Dovin Basals that controlled the coral skippers, instead they'd reverted back into a more natural state of the plant, one that generated a small gravitational field to ward away threats.

Tahiri watched as Anakin reached down towards an unusually large orb, if he felt the effects of the gravitational field, he didn't show it. She asked, "What are you thinking?"

"That we actually have a weapon here that could work."

"The Yuuzhan Vong only used them for propulsion, and defense. They aren't a weapon. If they could be weaponized, they would have done it."

"Jacen showed me a few trick of how to talk to Vong plantlife."

Tahiri felt a shiver rush down her spine at the original name of her Sith Master. Darth Caedus had manipulated her into doing his will, by doing nothing more than giving her an opportunity to see Anakin again. He'd used that love to twist her into something terrible. If Caedus could manage that with mere moments with a vision of Anakin, what could the real thing convince her to do?

Seeming to have sensed her thoughts, Anakin looked up from the orb and said, "Caedus should never have come into being, that was my partially my fault, and I'm sorry to have put you through it."

She didn't know what to say, he was dead, what could have Anakin possibly done to stop it?

"If I did nothing, you've have been the first to gain a respect with the Yuuzhan Vong, and lead to a true peace between them and the rest of the surviving species in the galaxy."

"You don't actually think that you changed the course of the war do you?"

"Yes, I do."

"The Yuuzhan Vong would have continued to destroy everything until there was nothing left, how could you change anything?"

"It was very easy actually, when I died, I stopped Jacen from escaping the worldship, led him to Vergere, then nudged a few things in the right direction. Without me doing that, they would have won. And we might actually stand a chance."

"Okay, I'm sick of all this hinting, what exactly is coming?"

"Tahiri, don't react."

"At what..."

And before she could continue, she felt a sharp blade press against her throat. She hadn't heard anything, hadn't sensed anything, and despite searching everywhere, she still couldn't sense anything behind her.

Tahiri didn't move.

Anakin's voice didn't rise in volume at all, but it seemed to take on a very dark menace, "Hakouri. Release her now."

Tahiri didn't feel the pressure release, but flashes of movement darted out of the fields, and before she knew it, they were surrounded by Noghri. Now she'd spotted them, she could sense the newcomers in the Force, but the one behind her was still invisible. Not even her danger sense gave her warning.

Without a word of communication, they all formed up, surrounding Anakin, with primitive knives reflecting the sunlight. Anakin didn't move, didn't even glance at the newcomers. Tahiri watched at his eyes bored directly behind her.

"I am Anakin Vader, Son of Leia Vader, Grandson of Darth Vader. I command you to release her now."

The pressure still didn't relax, it just stayed strong against her throat. The Noghiri with the greyest skin, presumably the eldest, mewed, "Anakin Vader died many winters ago. Why do you impersonate him?"

Tahiri, don't move, he can kill you before you even blink. Anakin's voice seemed to bounce around her head.

"I impersonate nobody. I am Anakin Vader, release my mate."

Tahiri felt her lightsaber tugging at her belt, and then it was flashing through the air towards Anakin, the blade flashing to life, and just hovering around Anakin. He didn't move to take it, only slowly hovered it around his body.

The Noghri stepped back, all eyes glaring at the lightsaber floating above them. Grey skin mewed, "What is it you want here?"

"I came for Hakouri. I want him as my Apprentice."

The Noghiri around them all started mewing, a Noghri laughter? But the pressure against her throat eased a fraction.

Greyed skin mewed, "Hakouri is not a Jedi. No Noghri are Jedi."

"With my training, Hakouri will become the most lethal being in the Galaxy. He will be the nightmare to anybody who wishes to cause harm in the Galaxy, the very thought of him will stop many from turning to darkness."

Tahiri felt the pressure against her throat vanish, and released a breath she didn't realise she was holding. A small Bluish-Green figure crept out from behind her. He didn't look impressive, compared to the other humanoid figures surrounding them anyway. Tahiri didn't know enough about the Noghri species to pick his age, but he looked young.

The young Noghri mewed, "What can you teach me that I cannot learn for myself?"

Tahiri's lightsaber disengaged, and without Anakin looking away from the small Noghri, it shot back to her belt. Anakin widened his hands, and said, "Attack me and find out."

Tahiri couldn't miss the apprehension coming from Anakin this time. He'd taken on a legion of Jedi single handed and won, but one small Noghri seemed to make him worry?

Tahiri blinked, and before she could open her eyes again, a sickening crack hit her ears. She watched as a blushish-grey ball went flying away from Anakin, surrounded by a ball of blue Force energy. The ball slammed into the ground, rolling a few meters to a stop, and the Noghri effortlessly continued to his feet.

Tahiri turned to look at Anakin, and felt her heart stop. His forearm was broken, and facing in the opposite direction. Anakin touched his broken forearm, and went to stretch it out - but before he could continue - the blur stuck again. Tahiri didn't dare blink again. Hakouri darted towards Anakin with a shocking speed, faster than any Jedi she'd ever seen.

Only Anakin simply vanished, from her vision, and from the Force.

But not from Hakouri.

Another sickening crack, and Anakin reappeared, crumpling to the ground, his leg broken. The blueish-ball was sent flying away, this time surrounded by a cracking sphere of Force Lightning. Anakin raised his good arm, and the cracking sphere rose into the air, with Hakouri still inside.

Anakin said, "Don't try and touch the lightning, it'll slice through your skin. Instead draw on the power that moves through your body and lets you move with that speed, pull it into you."

The sphere shrunk a little, making Hakouri crouch inside it. Anakin glared up at the Noghri, and seemed to levitate his own body off the ground, and with another sickening crunch and Anakin's leg was facing in right direction again. Anakin looked at his broken forearm, and without a physical touch from him, it shot back to the correct direction. The pain radiating from Anakin couldn't be ignored.

Anakin, appearing to use the Force in place of his broken leg, half walked, half floated towards Hakouri. He continued, "Now, use that energy and send it to every part of your body, and make it match the energy from the lightning, the energy coming into you will feel overwhelming, focus it, and control it. If you don't do this right, it will kill you."

The sphere shrunk more, and Hakouri stood, directly through the lightning, and the sphere vanished behind him. Tahiri thought that might been it, but the small Noghri blurred again towards Anakin, only he stopped dead still in front of Anakin, with limbs reaching out towards Anakin's other arm, preparing to make another break.

The Noghri stood for another moment, and Anakin's voice seemed to come out of the Noghri's mouth, "I'm sorry to so this one, but right now you are weak. I will make you strong."

Whatever he'd been doing, Anakin released the Noghri, and he took a few shaky steps backwards. Then the cold Noghri eyes glanced up at Anakin, and Tahiri knew another attack was about to come. But one step sent the Noghri crashing to the ground again. Tahiri wondered for a moment what was causing it, but she felt the her insides twisting as gravity pulled her in two directions. Hakouri crumpled directly over the closest plant, unable to fight against the gravity field.

Anakin must have turned on the Dovin Basals. Somehow.

"You can't win this Hakouri. Do you give up?"

The Noghri seemed to think for a moment, then replied, "Yes Master Vader. Teach me."

"Only if you promise me one thing."

The smaller head nodded. Anakin continued, "If I stop being able to control the darkness inside myself, kill me."

"Yes Master."

******...

Tahiri watched as Anakin tended to his broken bones. He was binding them together with stiff bandages, and using some sort of glowing Force power to assist in healing. She asked, "Are you sure that was a smart thing to do?"

"I'd seen how quick he was, but experiencing it in person is another thing altogether. All the Force abilities he was using were self taught, which is simply amazing."

"He could have killed you!"

"Almost did."

Tahiri felt sudden heat in her cheeks, and her vision blurring with uncontrollable tears. Anakin closed the gap between them. She caught the scent of hydraulic fluid, a strange smell she always loved because of him. She felt a finger below her chin, pulling her eyes into line with his. Anakin said, "I'm not invincible, far from it. I took out all the Jedi on the Yavin because of some tricks they didn't know and weren't prepared for. It won't be that easy next time."

"You're expecting a next time?"

"Oh yes. The Jedi aren't going to like what I need to do, and they'll team up against me, in numbers and with overwhelming force. But there is one thing you've been owing me for a while."

"What?"

And without warning, she felt his lips pressing against her, and she responded instinctively, pulling him closer, and kissing him harder. And the flood gates seemed to open, years of loneliness took over, and she wanted nothing more than to be with him, part of him, and she wanted it now. She felt slightly guilty that he was currently nursing broken bones, but only slightly. She wanted him like she'd never wanted something before.

Only Anakin pulled away from her. She felt like an idiot, too fast, why did she have to push it.

She looked up at him, and he held up a finger, making everything inside her come to a stop. He said, "I want you to extend your Force awareness, when we've got time, I'll teach you to make it work unconsciously, but for now, stretch yourself out, and try to phase between your normal sense, and your Vong sense."

He seemed to have a sad expression on his face. Was it the kissing? Was she moving too fast? Why was she thinking like a teenager?

"Tahiri, clear your mind and focus. Somebody is coming, she'd hidden herself in the Force. I want you to find her. You can already access your Vong sense, so this should be easy."

Tahiri did as told, and took a few cleansing breaths, and allowed the anxious thoughts to slip away, and let the Force flow into her. She felt fingers touching either side of her head, and instantly felt another presence in her head, it was almost Anakin, but older, with something else...

'Tahiri, focus'. Her mind snapped to the task at hand, and she couldn't help but follow him. She felt her mind slipping towards her Vong sense, like a gate crossing over to another side, but she felt something holding her back.

'Now, hold the spot in between both worlds, and search through that." She knew he was assisting her in this, but it made it so much quicker, and with the space between both senses, she stretched out. It was silent. Very silent.

She pushed her awareness out, and a presence seemed to flash alive in her mind, startlingly clear without anything else distorting it, or getting in the way. She looked closer, she knew the mind very well, it was Jaina, but she felt different, powerful, and furious.

Anakin explained, using his actual voice, "When somebody shuts down in the Force, they are shifting their consciousness here, they'll feel like they are drifting away, but they are coming here, and regular Force senses can't access them."

"How did Jaina find us? She couldn't have known where we were going."

Anakin looked up into the sky, and waited as the Jaina honed in on the Falcon, he growled, "She had help."

***...

Jaina was slightly surprised it'd been this easy. The Force was with her.

She locked her Stealth-X onto the Falcon's transponder, and turned into a shallow glide to the surface. Her mandalorian training flashed back, and she let the fury take over, with even less control than she'd used with Caedus. Boba Fett and the Mandalorians taught her many tricks, but the single minded focus was the most important. She wouldn't let anything get in her way.

Flying through the atmosphere, she spotted the falcon , and slowed the Stealth-X, swinging it around for a hard & fast landing. She'd shut herself down in the Force, and with her Stealth X, she'd be virtually impossible to find.

Only, as she flew closer, she spotted two figures standing on the rear ramp of the Falcon.

Waiting for her.

She could sense Anakin and Tahiri in the Force, but this time Anakin's presence wasn't full of malice and hate. More of an annoyance?

Landing hard and fast, she cracked the canopy, and Force lept out of the cockpit, landing meters from Anakin.

She ripped up her lightsaber, and thumbed it to life, rushing over to meet that thing. He moved towards her, with a half step, then half levitate. He might have an injured leg, she could use that.

Pulling the Force into her, the felt everything suddenly becoming heavier, her whole body felt like it weighed a tonne. She crumpled to the ground, her knees taking over from the intense weight around her. She scowled up at that Being as it walked closer, then at the plants surrounding her, they were Dovin Basals, wild, and...

Everything clicked, she couldn't sense the plants in the Force, but she could sure as hell affect the dirt holding them into the ground. She reached out with the Force, grabbing the dirt surrounding where the roots would be, and flung everything towards Anakin.

She felt the weight lift, and climbed to her feet, watching as the plants hung in mid-air surrounding Anakin. He seemed to be considering what to do with them, and reached up to touch one, and shut his eyes for a moment...

And air suddenly begun a frenzy around her, swirling towards her - Stealth-X?

Gravity seemed to be bending behind her, and she felt herself getting sucked backwards. She hesitated long enough. Leaping forward in a fast powerful surge, she closed the distance, and swung her lightsaber down in a powerful, furious lunge, straight for his head. Only his hand moved from the plant, to directly in the path of the lightsaber. And he caught it.

He actually caught it, by the blade.

And she suddenly realised that she never actually landed on the ground, he'd caught her too mid leap. Her blade begun to get impossibly brighter, and begun to flicker. She tried to thumb off the blade, but it did nothing. And in an instant, the brilliant bright blade flashed and died, with a clunk in her hand.

He nodded towards the Stealth-X, and she felt her head moving to look at it. She used every technique she knew to avoid moving her head, to break the hold he had over her, but nothing seemed to work, and as the view changed, she saw an incredibly small black spot form inside the middle of her ship, and with a wave of blurred light, and crunch of metal, the ship simply disappeared.

A moment later, she was flung backwards, and landed hard on her back.

She looked up as the pressure holding her was gone. She shouldn't have tried with the lightsaber, it didn't work at Yavin, he was a freak. She needed to kill him, and she let the simple Mandalorian battle thought take over. End.

She pulled out her favourite vibroblade from her back pocket, and closed herself off from the Force completely. She wouldn't give him a target he could hit with whatever tricks he had.

"Why is it the only solution you can come up for a problem with Family is to kill it?"

She didn't reply, just took in everything about her opponent, one of his arms seemed to be injured. Snap a block towards it, and a sharp kick to his leg, then the vibroblade to the neck. Quick and clean.

Lunging forward, she aimed a brutal elbow to his arm. Only mere millimeters before it should have struck, it came to a hard, painful stop. She looked down and saw evil in his eyes, and watched as his good hand begun to glow, pull back, and glow even brighter still. She was about to die.

Only the glow flickered for a moment, and Anakin boomed, "You're pregnant, and you're trying to kill me in hand to hand combat. Are you insane?"

End. End him.

"Will you stop that Mandalorian battle mindset. Do you have any idea how important that child inside of you is? And you're already setting it up to fail."

Everything else was black, emotions weren't there, logic wasn't there. Just the cold pursuit, cold objective.

"Jacen sent you here, I can see the faint traces he left on your mind."

She felt a flicker of emotion flicked through the Mandalorian focus, and shoved it back.

Anakin's voice took on an angry malice, "You killed our brother, and he still wants to see us reunited."

"Jacen was already dead, I only took the final blow."

Anakin took a few steps towards her, his eyes flickered with an orange glow, the same way Caedus had. He growled, "I put the fate of the galaxy in your hands, I watched the scene play out a hundred times, in a thousand different futures. And I knew I could trust in your love for your brother, the twin bond you shared."

"He was evil."

Anakin wanted to hurt her, kill her. She could see it, even somehow sense it blacked off from the Force. He growled, "I watched as you did something I couldn't have picked, and I still can''t believe. Jacen was taking the steps exactly as planned, edging to the darkness, finding the grey area, and you were supposed to help him, stop him falling into complete darkness, and together become something unstoppable.

"But the part I still can't believe, you could sense him going dark, could sense the anger and turmoil inside of him, you tried to block off the twin bond, but you couldn't. You should have gone to him, and kept him to the grey area with love. Instead you just said he didn't feel right, and walked off."

She felt the single minded focus slip, and emotion slipping in, tears welling up. She tried to struggle against the hold, but Anakin was too strong. He boomed, "How could you have left your twin brother like that and walked off?"

He stood waiting for an answer, but she didn't have one. He continued, "I set up so many situations that you could have gone to him, brought him back and set your paths on track, but no, you just got caught up in a stupid love triangle with Jag and Zekk. Like a fragging teenager."

The flood gates opened, and her focus was gone. She felt the blurring around her eyes, and emotions flooded back in, choking her, devouring her. He stammered, "Lumiya and Alema Rar were running around causing having, starting wars..."

"Do you think either of them could have stood up against yourself and Jacen united, the two of you counterbalanced each other perfectly. You could have peacefully just kicked Corellia from the Alliance, and waited for them to come crawling back. Then the two of you would have risen through the ranks, you through the military, him through the political side, and the two of you would have created a true united Galaxy, one that trusted the both of you, and would act fiercely to keep that peace. Borders and regions would have collapsed, and true peace would have taken over. And when the storm comes, you could have pulled the galaxy into one gigantic hammer to send them back."

She looked up at her brother, his eyes flashed back to his normal green, and she felt the rage inside her brother being replaced with mere anger. And her father...

She turned to look up the ramp into the Falcon, and felt her father like never before. Powerful. Raw and untrained, but powerful.

He glared down at Jaina, and Anakin too. Like two children fighting over an sweet.

Han Solo demanded, "Let her up, and Jaina, if you try and attack, I swear on the Emperor's Black Bones that it won't end well for you."

Jaina felt the immense pressure holding her back vanish, and Anakin slumped to the ground, apparently far more drained than she realised, and his arm had taken on a dark purple/black colour. Han continued, "Anakin, no more games or evasive hints. I want to know exactly what we're up against."

Sitting, and recovering his strength, Anakin replied, "Alright, I think Plagueis has finished CPO's modification, lets install it, and I'll explain it all."


	6. Chapter 6

Plageuis often pondered a question to which he had no answer. Life couldn't exist without the midi-chlorians, yet they somehow found their way to to every corner of the galaxy. He'd experimented by stripping a few Force Sensitive creatures of their midi-chlorians, and the results were puzzling. The creatures didn't die straight away, but they lost the will to do anything, be it a Jedi, or a bug; they lost the will to even breathe, then the cells holding the body together lost the will to do even that, and the bodies would return to their basic elements.

Learning and manipulating midi-chlorians gave Plagueis a satisfaction that couldn't be expressed in words. The first time he'd touched the semi intelligent microbes, they'd fought back, and refused to let him communicate with them. But with meditation and enormous focus, he'd managed to talk with them. It wasn't so much a verbal conversation, more of a sharing of images. The midi-chlorians always sent back images of what they thought they should be, incredibly complex and yet somehow simple at the same time, they sent back their images.

The first time he'd managed to change their images was in himself, he'd pictured his damaged and old body, and kept on making small adjustments with the images he'd send back. With much meditation, and constant too and forth images, the images would change, and his body responded with a miraculous fever. His Midi-Chlorians no longer believed his body was as it should be. Within a very short period of time, he'd taken on the body of a far younger Muun, and even convinced his body that he was supposed to have a far higher concentration of Midi-Chlorians.

As a result, his power and control over the Force increase tenfold. And the more he communicated with the midi-chlorians, the more they responded to his touch, and obeyed his images. He'd experimented so much, created and changed so much, and with every study, every success and failure, he learnt more.

So when his very curious creation requested for him to create something out of his own flesh, he couldn't help but be curious. As far as he knew, it didn't need to be Anakin's own flesh, it could be a Rankor wing, and he could turn that into whatever he desired.

He'd created this brain like substance before, but it'd been a failure. He'd abandoned it to death on Kegan, one of his meditation bases. Every decade or so, he'd make an intelligence gathering expedition. See if there were any new Force powers developed, something that he could learn or discover. However, during his last expedition, the Yuuzhan War erupted, and his Kegan base wasn't worth the trouble of fighting the through the blockades. So he captured a few Yuuzhan Vong for experimentation, and found a nice out of the way world, and tried to figure out how the Yuuzhan Vong lived outside of the Force.

"Is it done yet?"

Plagueis turned his head to gaze at his creation. He was very glad he didn't kill the being on Yavin, his outburst seemed out of character. Life and Death of others was always a fleeting business, giving it, or taking held about the same sway over him. Decades ago, he might have felt anger, or annoyance at being questioned by a boy that he created, but for now, he'd play the game and see what he could learn.

He'd been tempted to mind lock with the being, and take it all by force, but he couldn't be sure of success, and he was nothing if not patient. Time will likely be more fruitful.

Looking down at the reassembled pile of flesh in the Bacta fluid, Plagueis nodded and said, "It is. May I ask a question?"

Anakin seemed to be nursing several broken bones, he was using an ancient Force assisted hop to replace the use of his injured leg, one that'd been used by ancient Force users who'd lost limbs, before the invention of prosthetic limbs, it appeared to allow complete movement over the limb, without taking much concentration.

Anakin replied, "Sure."

"How were my dark tendencies enhanced on Yavin? I have more control than that."

"That'd be what you created on Kegan. They've grown."

And before Plagueis could question anymore, another Solo child stepped into the room, and shot what Plagueis imagined as an angry human look, it'd been awhile since he'd tried much interaction with a human. He twisted his lips into an uncomfortable human like smile, and let his Force presence flood out, well a portion of it anyway. She seemed to recoil with a moment of fear on her face, and her hand went automatically searching for a lightsaber on her belt.

Her twin brother showed so much potential, but lacked proper guidance in the dark side, and he was never taught the patience that was needed in a true Sith. She might have been suitable if she'd been taken at an early enough age, but she didn't have the control over her emotions needed, only attempted to hide them them from herself. Her descent into overwhelming darkness would be too quick.

And then another being walked into the cabin. A very curious being. A Noghri.

He was young by the standards of the Noghri, no more than 5 standard years old. But he was already cloaking himself in the Force, a seemly naturally discovered ability. Had he discovered a new way to cloak himself?

"He isn't somebody you want to experiment with. Trust me with that."

Plagueis turned from his appraisal of the young Noghri, and glared up at his creation, then turned to watching as Tahiri and the Golden droid walked into the cabin, followed by Han Solo; who if Plagueis wasn't mistaken, had had his Midi-Chlorians adjusted. So Anakin had learnt that ability also. It wasn't one that should be taught to the masses.

Plagueis watched as Anakin turned from him to look at the old golden droid, a protocol model if it was correct. Plagueis waited; waiting was easy when you were immortal.

"Threepio, is it alright if I play with your processors, I want to make some organic upgrades."

Whoever programmed the droid thought it must have been amusing to make it a very nervous worried droid. It's mechanical whine was annoying, and threw up it's hands in a melodramatic reaction to the question. It said, "Oh my, Master Anakin, I don't know. You know I am quite fond of my processors. You don't want to turn me into one of those nasty YVH droids do you? They are quite uncivilised."

Anakin stepped closer to the droid and looked it in the photoreceptors, almost as if he was addressing a living being, well one worthy of being addressed anyway. "Threepio, the last thing I want to do is take away who you are."

"I suppose that would be alright, as long as I remain as myself. What is it you plan to do?"

"Darth Plagueis here has created a Force sensitive organic processor that I'll integrate into your circuitry, help you become what you were originally destined for."

"Oh my, Master Anakin, I'm not sure about thiiiiisssssss..."

Plagueis noticed a hint of Force pressure, presumably onto the the rear power switch for the droid, and the Droid slumped forward.

Plagueis asked, "How do you integrate the electricity and organic circuits. They work on completely different wave lengths."

Anakin tapped a few pressure points, and the front cover for the droid popped open. He looked inside, and touched a few wires, Plagueis watched in fascination as Anakin seemed to search the internal wiring with the Force, like he was tracing out every path, every capacitor, every power cell, and...

Well Plagueis was really unsure what was happening.

Anakin stretched his free hand towards the Bacta pot, and the brain like material floated very carefully towards his waiting hand. He plucked a processor out of the body of the droid, and very gently eased the brain like material into the empty processor slot. He kept his hand over the slot, and poured...

Enormous quantities of Force energy into the brain, and...

Plagueis really didn't know. It was really very curious..

The power kept flowing into the small organic flesh, and it seemed to glow bright with too much energy, a faint click came from behind the droid, and the lights turned on behind the photoreceptors, but nothing else happened. The droid didn't move.

"Threepio, you'll need to reroute the power through your new processor. It'll feel slow, but that's normal, and you'll need to create a subroutine, to meld your power source and the organic. Take measurements from what I'm doing, and copy it, then keep it working as a loop."

Everybody in hold around them were staring intently at the golden droid, except for the little Noghri, he seemed far more interested in Plagueis. That one could be trouble, or an exceptional assassin. Not that he felt the need to assassinate anybody, he couldn't think of a being powerful enough to challenge him.

"Oh my."

Anakin removed his hand, and Plagueis suddenly sensed another presence in the room, a very strange one, but a conscious presence never the less.

"How does it feel Threepio?"

The droid's voice didn't change, but Plagueis could sense rapid changes going on with the droid. Nothing emotional, but; fast, logical, and touching the Force?.

"My senses, I have a new one, a... Oh my. R2 will be very jealous indeed."

"That he will, I would like you to explore these new senses, and make sure you write a subroutine to nourish your organic parts. It's up to you how you want to do it."

Anakin clipped the front panel back onto the Droids body, and switching emotions almost like a sociopath, he asked, "Okay, what's the limiting factor with any Force user?"

Plagueis didn't want to wait for the others to guess, and answered, "Midi-Chlorians levels."

And his small creation shook his head in reply, almost treating him like he was a child. Anakin said, "Not entirely. The limiting factor is focus, a larger concentration of Midi-Chlorians will make it easier to access and focus your mind. But there is only so much focus that any a living being can manage. For us to do something like levitate a rock, we first need to remember how, clear our mind, focus, then use the Force.

"Threepio here is something entirely different. He now has a consciousness controlled by a droid brain, and the two will grow to become more connected. When he wants to access or use the Force, it'll be as easy as opening a program, setting parameters, and it'll work."

Across the room, Jaina stepped back from the golden droid, she said, "Why am I getting a bad feeling about this?"

Anakin shrugged, "Because you're starting to realising what we're up against. What I've just done to Threepio here, it's something that keeps on trying to happen, despite what the conscious Force does to stop it. And we can't stop it any longer. The living Force would rather see every Jedi cut down by Darth Vader, than letting an untrained yet powerful Anakin Skywalker do this to Threepio."

Han Solo cut in, "I'm missing something here, why would you do that if it's so dangerous."

Anakin turned to his father, and said, "I'm taking a very large gamble that Threepio will decide to like us once he's sentient, he hasn't been memory wiped in a very long time, and he's been treated very well by our family."

"I've never treated that droid well, he's always in the way, he's..."

The refined voice sounded from inside the droid, and half the beings in the room seemed to recoil. Threepio said, "I really must object Master Han, you've always kept me safe, and so far I haven't been destroyed. And you've let me fly your ship, and I realise it's a very rare occasion that you'll let anybody do that."

The Human male responded slowly. "No problem then. You've grown on me."

"Oh Master Han, I am so glad to hear that."

Han continued, "I still don't understand why you've done this..."

Threepio cut in again, from the look in the human's face, it was a new behaviour, "I can sense another like me, it's strange, it doesn't appear to have any emotion, and is still quite basic, and something else, something distant."

Anakin's eyes shot wide, and he got in closer to the Droid, "Threepio, write a subroutine that looks out like a radar, and look out for the distant thing, can you tell me how far it is? How big? How many? Anything?"

The eyes didn't stop glowing, and the droid replied in under a minute, "It's shielded, and very vague. I can detect something, but no idea what."

"Keep trying."

"I will Master Anakin."

Han demanded, "Okay kid, it's time to tell explain yourself, what are you looking for?"

"On Kegan, we're going to find the version of Threepio that Plagueis created, and which has had about ten years to mature. I'm not sure how strong it is yet, but it's got the power to send Force visions to every Jedi in the Galaxy, and manipulate how the sense certain beings. They know that I've come to exterminate them, and will not be easy to defeat."

Anakin paused for a moment, a genuine fear radiating from him, "However, currently crossing the void between Galaxies is something which started in a similar way. They destroyed everything in their galaxy, and wiped out every sentient being apart from the Yuuzhan Vong, which only survived by running. The conscious Force can't sense it, doesn't know anything about it, but we keep on getting Force Visions of planet after planet being ripped apart and harvested."

"We know whatever it is started out like Threepio here, but since then it's had thousands of years to evolve into whatever it wants. And I am terrified of it."


	7. Chapter 7

Luke Skywalker sat in meditation, legs crossed, and searched.

The Force had never been this silent with him before, there was always some sort of guidance, reassurance, or a path to follow. But right now, he was getting nothing.

He'd tried to send his mind out to every corner of the Galaxy, searching for Anakin's presence, but just came up with nothing, not so much as a hint. He then tried searching for Tahiri, and then Jaina, and it all came up with nothing. It was just kind of disheartening.

He'd discovered the hard way how to snap out of out whatever Anakin had done to them, a jolt of Force lightning to the head did an excellent job. The surge he'd gotten from Kyp Durran probably would have fixed a few hundred people. The throbbing in his cheek stayed as a constant reminder that Kyp was a extremely powerful Jedi, one who always seemed to hold back with his considerable powers, despite his bravado.

However, he still couldn't decide what he'd do if he actually found Anakin. Force in numbers didn't work, should he take him on in single combat? But would that actually work? He watched as Kyp's lightsaber swung right through, and it only seemed to energise him. Maybe a Vibrosword would be a better choice.

A beep on his console brought him back from his useless search. He looked up to see an incoming message search from Jedi Apprentice Durac Gratica, it took a few moments to register the name, then a few more moments to figure out why he was calling Luke.

Gratica had left the Jedi Order in his early apprenticeship, he'd been sent on a easy reconnaissance mission to a planet on the Outer Rims, but halfway through the mission he'd messaged and expressed his desire to leave the order. It'd been during the Caedus rein, so the Jedi had more important things on their minds. Thinking back, Luke couldn't even remember a knight being sent to check up on the young apprentice, it'd been a chaotic time.

Luke thumbed the accept button, and the terrified face of Gratica appeared in the holo, he started, "Master Skywalker. He's here. So many people are going to die."

"Slow down, what's happening?"

"I had a vision about a Jedi, one who came back from the dead. I tried to report it, but the Masters at the Temple said that every Jedi had the same vision, and that it was being dealt with. He's here. On Kegan. He's tapped into the public holo, he sent out a hello message, but there must have been something hypnotic inside of it, because people are grouping up and just waiting. Just like the visions!",

Luke stared at the holo for a moment, he thought he'd have more of a chance to do something before this would happen.

"He's still in the Millennium Falcon above the planet, will you help?"

Luke started thumbing through his contacts and found the head of the Galactic Alliance Fifth Fleet, from memory they were in the Outer Rim. One of the advantages of being the Jedi Grand Master was having friends in high places.

Luke replied to Gratica, "Stay calm, and if you can stall him, do it, but don't take him on in combat, you won't stand a chance. We'll be there as soon as we can."

Luke didn't wait for a reply, he commed the Fifth Fleet Admiral Bwua'tu.

If the entire Fifth Fleet, led by Admiral Bwua'tu couldn't take down this Being who'd taken Anakin's form, then they were doomed.

***...

The starlines around them reverted, and the planet of Kegan took up the front view port.

Jaina had done a few searches on the destination during lightspeed. It was primarily a food producing planet, with less than a million people living there. It'd been left alone during the Yuuzhan Vong war, probably because it was so insignificant.

She felt Anakin walking into the cockpit before she saw him. He felt like Anakin, frustratingly so, but how hard would that be to fake? Jacen could mask his presence, change the way he felt to others around him, but the unique part of him always felt like Jacen. But Anakin seemed to know tricks that Jacen didn't.

She needed to study him, learn off him, and when she knew enough, if he wasn't who he claimed to be, she'd know his secrets and take him out. She watched as he shut his eyes and took in everything around him, he opened them a moment later with a quizzical look on his face, he asked, "What are you feeling down there?"

Jaina opened herself up and allowed the Force to flow into her, she'd tried to recreate how the Force flowed into her on Yavin, but it seemed to be...

She suddenly felt a few points of pressure on the side of her head, and before she could recoil, she heard the words inside her mind, 'Don't try, if you try and call it to yourself, it won't come to you like on Yavin. You're part of it, let go and try this...''

And she felt herself glow bright in the Force, as the energy flowed into her, with so much amazing detail...

And as the pressure left her head, the detail stopped, and she was back to how she'd been before. Almost like having the lights turned off, or at least dimmed. It wasn't fair, she wanted more, needed more.

Anakin said, "It'll take practice, but you'll get it, just don't try, relax and open yourself. Now what did you feel down there?"

Jaina saw every part of the vision coming true, she wanted more, the knowledge he held was intoxicating. And she wanted it. And that scared her to the bone.

"It felt like a regular planet. Life forms of every kind, and millions of intelligent beings going along their business. Normal fears, loves, just a regular planet."

"Does it feel especially powerful down there, like a planet wide nexus in the Force?"

"No. Should it?"

"Yes."

Jaina spread her presence out again, but felt nothing out of the ordinary.

Moments later, the lanky form of Plagueis stepped into the cockpit, and it took every bit of control inside of her not to reach for her lightsaber, even if the blade didn't function, she could still use it as a club. He seemed to wear the dark side with pride, taunting her with what he was.

Anakin's voice came almost as if he was lecturing a child, "Jaina, Plagueis has dedicated his life to studying the Force, and in over 80 years, he hasn't tried to conquer the galaxy, or even meddle with events. Why do you hate him for what he is?"

Jaina felt blood pulsing through her hands, surging through her head, she bit back, "I don't hate anybody, hate is of the dark side."

Anakin didn't change the tone of his voice, "You're currently fighting the urge to kill a being which you know nothing about, simply because you don't like the way he uses the force. If you don't think that's hate, then you need to do some thinking about the word."

Jaina felt the blood pulsing harder still, ringing in her ears, she said, "I know what the Dark side does, I've seen what it did to Jacen, what it's..."

Anakin snapped in, his voice harsh. "No, you've seen what happened when people can't control their own emotions. The Sith like to have a sacrifice to draw people completely over to darkness, do you know why that is?"

"I'm sure you're about to tell me."

"Guilt. The subconscious can't deal with the sacrifice, and it shuts down part of the mind that deal with guilt, and without guilt, self control goes out the window, and the more bad you do, the more your mind shuts down, not wanting to accept the guilt, and the harder it is to bring them back."

It all made a little too much sense to her, the darker a person went, the harder it'd be to face the guilt of what they'd done. And she'd just been schooled by her little brother again.

Anakin didn't seem to push the issue anymore though, he turned to Plagueis and asked, "Can you sense anything from your base down there, anything at all."

The elongated Muun head shook, he replied, "Nothing. Although it seems a little too perfect."

Anakin slid into the co-pilot seat, and started typing away on the console, he said, "I agree, I'm going to try a little experiment, see if I can remember how to slice into the public Holo network."

"Why?"

"Just an experiment."

*****...

Admiral Nek Bwua'tu stared out the massive view ports of the Admiral Ackbar - his Victory Class Star Destroyer - and puzzled on his new mission. He'd been called a master tactician, but he'd never considered himself that before, more of a Bothan who was quite good at getting into the minds of others. When you knew the mind of who you were against, then finding their weaknesses would be easy.

He'd beaten the Thrawn Simulator countless times, not by thinking out every possible option, but by figuring out Thrawn himself, what motivated him, what his weaknesses would be, but as the crono counted down, Bwua'tu realised that he knew nothing about what he was up against this time.

Master Luke Skywalker didn't give anywhere near enough details, but apparently he was up against a reincarnated Anakin Solo, one which wasn't really Anakin Solo, but knew Force powers that nobody could understand.

Really very cryptic information indeed.

Also, apparently Han Solo, and Tahiri Veila were with him as well, either a hostage or accomplice, and they would probably be quite displeased if either were killed.

His first instinct would be to play this like it was up against the original Anakin Solo, play against the presumed humanity, give bait, snap the trap. But that could work out quite badly if he applied it against the wrong quarry.

He did have a few new toys which were just out of development, or in it's live testing stage. During her reign, Chief of State Daala had started several secret research departments, she'd been in charge of the Maw installation, a research station, it only made sense she'd do it as Chief of State. However, she'd had a different goal, she set all these in charge of killing or controlling the Jedi.

Given the history of Jedi problems impacting the galaxy over the last 80 years, Bwua'tu thought it'd be a very bad decision to disband these research departments, even if they never used these, it'd be smart to keep them on hand if another Darth Caedus decided to try and take over. Bwua'tu funneled funds from other parts of the Fifth Fleet, and let them go to work creating whatever they could.

His favourite at the moment was given the pet name of the Stealth X Bomb. The Stealth X's gave the Jedi a little too much power, they could potentially use these modified X-Wings to destroy any crafts unaware, just sneak up next to it, and maneuver a Shadow bomb right next to a power convertor. The Stealth X bomb took away part of that advantage.

Scientists had dissected several Ysalamiri, and discovered the parts of their brains and bodies that controlled their Force negating bubbles, it was only then a matter of putting electrodes to the correct parts, and they had a way to switch the Force on and off.

The bubble itself wouldn't be enough to take down the Jedi though, finding the Stealth X was still an impossible feat. So they'd taken another native species of Myrkr, a Vornskr, a canine beast which instinctively used the Force to track it's prey. The scientists had taken the beasts and implanted a Cybernetic implant which interfaced their instinctive Force tracking ability.

Given the living aspects of the bomb, it wasn't an easy one to store, or mass produce, but hopefully it'd work.

However, luckily they weren't up against a Stealth X. Just the Millennium Falcon. But figuring out who was piloting was a bit of a guess, and Bwua'tu really didn't like to guess.

Moments later, the starlines reverted to stars around them, and they were staring at the vision of Regan.

"Sir, we're receiving several hundred distress calls from the surface, they are saying almost three quarters of the population is being brainwashed, and are grouping together, and just waiting."

Bwua'tu nodded and looked at his subordinate in his station.

"Sir, we've located the Millennium Falcon, it's hovering in orbit around the planet. It seems to be in a holding pattern. Do you wish to make contact with the Falcon?"

Bwua'tu thought for a moment, and replied, "Extend the interdictor field over the Falcon, and tell tractor beams to be ready. Tell the Ion cannons to warm up and lock targets. When I say shoot, don't shoot directly at the targets, spread the fire over every possible possible maneuvering vector. Presume they'll have a premonition before we shoot, and take away their escape capabilities."

"Yes sir."

"Now get me a direct line with the Falcon."

******...

"Why is there a Star Destroyer out there?" Han Solo demanded as he rushed past Anakin, and shooed Jaina out of his pilot's chair. He trusted his daughter to pilot, but damned if he'd let anybody go up against a Star Destroyer while he was on board.

Anakin replied, "That's the flagship of the Fifth Fleet. Where's the rest of the fleet?"

Han started flicking switches and powering up the maneuvering thrusters. Bwua'tu was probably the only Admiral that could have gone up against Thrawn, and stood a decent chance, outwitting that man wouldn't be easy.

And almost on cue, his display warning flashed up on his display, he was watching as the rest of the fleet emerged from Hyperspace, he counted 4 Star Destroyers, and another 5 Mon Calamari Star Cruisers. Han tried to plot a Hyperspace jump, but the warning flashed up at him that he was under an interdictor field. With the Fifth Fleet surrounding him, he wasn't going anywhere.

"Hey kid, unless you've got a brilliant idea, I'd suggest that we surrender."

Anakin stepped up closer to the front viewport, and stared down, he said, "We can't trust our eyes, they'll deceive us."

"What? That isn't the fifth fleet out there?"

Anakin shook his head, "Oh no, that's definitely the Fifth Fleet out there. Dad, go into evasive movements, I'll mirror and cloak us. Plagueis, find something large in orbit around the planet, and throw it down to where your research base was located, something large enough to wipe out a few hundred kilometers. Do you know how to shield it against others using telekinesis?"

Normally Han would have jumped from the smooth Munn voice behind him, but Han somehow knew the being was there, Plagueis replied, "I believe so."

Jaina jumped up from the co-pilot seat Han had pushed her into. "There is over a hundred thousand humans in that area, if you think I'm going to let you kill them, you've got another thing coming."

This time Han did feel something weird happening behind him, Jaina was... He turned to the side to watch as wind started swirling around her, and a faint glow started emitting from her hands. Moments later it'd swelled into bright blue orbs, getting bigger by the second.

"Hakouri, knock her out."

Before the words had even exited his lips, Han felt a rush of wind passing him, and the blue glow dissipated from Jaina's hands, and her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Moments later she was falling to the ground. The small Noghiri caught her between the shoulders and lowered her to the ground.

Han exclaimed, "That's your sister, what the hell did you just do?"

"Dad. She's fine, but pick a side quickly, we don't have time to Frac around."

Han looked around his cockpit, Tahiri seemed to be climbing over Jaina and the Noghiri, and the Muun still stood in the door. Han grumbled, "There is way too many people in my cockpit!"

"Oh my. Master Solo, if I may interject?" The golden droid waddled into the cockpit.

Another person in the cockpit. "Argh! Not now Golden Rod!"

Nothing seemed to shut that droid up. Threepio waffled, "I do feel far more concerned about my own safety now. How do you beings deal with this sort of concern? It's really quite debilitating."

"Too many people!"

Han watched at blue lights of an Ion blast shot past his view port, a warning shot. He looked down at the comms station, a request was waiting from the Admiral Ackbar.

"Dad, if they hit us with an ion blast, it'll kill Threepio in his current state."

"Oh my, my new circuit will reboot without my current memory. I couldn't imagine what would happen."

Han flashed a look at his son, and knew it wasn't an option to be caught right now, at least until he'd figured out if this was Anakin, he wasn't about to lose another child, he'd lost more than a family ever should.

He might be able to out maneuver a Star Destroyer or two in the middle of a battle, but the whole Fifth Fleet wasn't going to happen.

"Dad, answer it and stall him. And set the Falcon on full burn to get us out of the interdictor field, if I'm wrong, we'll need to get away quickly."

"What do you mean you could be wrong, about what?"

"If I'm wrong, or have timelines messed up, we could be about to kill a lot of people."

Han took a deep breath, and let it out, he'd made his decision, it was time to stick with it. He swung the Falcon around to pointed it towards clear space, and gunned his baby for all she was worth.

"Hi Admiral Bwua'tu, what can we do for you?"

****...

Bwua'tu cleared his throat, and motioned for his aid to put his voice through, "Han Solo, we've currently been put in charge of capturing your vehicle, it appears you have a fugitive on board."

Bwua'tu started mapping out escape courses, Han Solo may have been a great member of the alliance, but he was too predictable.

"He's done nothing wrong."

Bwua'tu watched as the Falcon stayed where it was, this wasn't like Han Solo, he muted his line and asked his closest aid, "Track the comm's signal, not his transponder, or even visually." He unmuted his line, "I'm afraid that's not for me to decide, Anakin Solo won't be harmed under my charge unless he resists."

From the Aid's face, Bwua'tu knew he'd been right, the transponder and visuals weren't matching the Comm's signal. He was trying to get out of the space interdictor field. Bwua'tu decided to end this quickly, disable them and pump the craft with knockout gas. He motioned for the gunners to target the comm's signal. And thought better of it a moment later, he linked up with all the commanders of his fleet, and got them to sync up all their ion cannons. The Comm's signal could be faked too. Skywalker said he had unusual skills.

****...

Han swore wildly, as his yoke was suddenly ripped from his hands, and slammed hard into his chair as too much strain was put on the compensators. And moments later, the whole space around them erupted with Ion blasts, all he could see for a few moments was blue. Coming from everywhere.

Han swore a few more times, knowing his baby had just been hit, but as he stared down at his readouts, they'd only gotten his right quad laser.

Han tested his controls, they responded. That was a miracle in itself.

"Sir, we've got them, plotting an intercept course now."

Bwua'tu smiled down at his display, he'd been correct, the Falcon wasn't where the comms signal, or even the visuals or transponder where coming from. It was in another complete area.

"Send my congratulations to all ships. Tell them to stand down."

"Yes Sir."

Only moments later, he held his breath in horror, as every single ship opened up their turbolaser cannons, including the Admiral Ackbar, and pulverised the entire area with turbolaser fire. He yelled, knowing it was too late, "Cease fire immediately! Any crew member firing without authorisation will be put up on charges!"

Bwua'tu watched as almost a hundred shots - each powerful enough to destroy the Falcon several times over - shot directly though where he thought the immobilised craft should have been.

And moments later, the entire Fifth Fleet went wild, every single weapon they possessed shot wildly into space. Shooting at any possible spot the Falcon could be hiding.

Had his entire fleet mutinied?

Moment later, he watched as his entire arsenal of Stealth X bombs were loosed. Almost 50 of them.


	8. Chapter 8

"Plagueis, how's that projectile coming?"

Tahiri spun around and stared at Anakin, feeling helpless sitting in the co-pilot chair. The entire space around them had lit up like fireworks display. A few turbolaser shots had been far too close, but so far, they hadn't been able to lock onto them. Whatever Anakin was doing to cloak them was working.

"I'm being resisted, by something remarkably strong." Plagueis's smooth voice replied from around the corner.

"Hide the projectile in the Force, like Yuuzhan Vong." Anakin commanded.

"How?" Plagueis sounded genuinely confused, "I can hide myself, but a non living..."

"Slip it into the void."

Tahiri could see the pain across Anakin's face. Hiding the Falcon from the wild shots of the entire Fifth Fleet was taking it out of him, his eyes had changed colour, hovering between the golden Sith colour, and his natural sky blue colour. His words came out strained, like he didn't have time to concentrate.

Plagueis's voice rose an octave, only only though, "What void?"

"You took several Vong hostage and experimented on them, this isn't the time to play stupid."

"The Yuuzhan Vong didn't have any Midi-Chlorians. I couldn't affect them."

A roar of pure fury erupted from Anakin, Tahiri felt the waves of dark energy pulsing from him. He shot his hand up towards the view port, and a blinding turbolaser shot stopped inches from the transparisteel, it fizzled out moments later. She looked out the cockpit window, as almost all of the laserfire stopped around them. They'd found them.

His eyes had taken on the pure golden Sith colour, and his whole demeanour changed. Electricity snapped and crackled from parts of his body, and his body started to glow, the same way it had when he'd died. She pushed back the thought as he replied in a calm, dark voice, "Why are you all so incompetent with the Force?"

Beside them, Han growled, "Hey kid, watch it."

Tahiri couldn't remember ever seeing Han Solo flinch, she doubted if anything had ever made him flinch, but the look, and wave of emotion sent in his direction made him jump back and put his head down into the cockpit, and swing the Falcon into a few more evasive moves.

Moments later, it wasn't just blind firing, the entire Fifth Fleet was blanket blasting every possible direction they could fly in. Shots were going wide, but many...

Another one stopped directly beside them, and she watched as Anakin dropped to a knee, his hand still stretching out in the direction of the shot, and the glow from him doubled. Then throwing everybody inside the cockpit to the side, a blast made it through, the power of it blowing out the shields instantly.

His voice rushed, "Tahiri, the void I showed you before to see Jaina, you need to envelop the satellite in that, then pull it into your Vong sense."

Tahiri couldn't take her eyes from Anakin, she didn't have the slightest clue about how to do that. With a few months worth of meditation, she might get close, but this was insane. She stammered, "Can't you..."

The few shots had triangulated onto them, and the sky around them, flashed with light. Blinding, terrifying light. He seemed to be stopping them somehow, but it was taking a massive toll on him. She watched as his glow started blinking out in certain parts of his body, she'd seen this before, he'd taken in so much of the Force, and it'd eaten his cells out from the inside.

She felt a moment of touch from Anakin, a reassuring nudge, which was then overwhelmed by the focused fury coming from him. Stretching out, she searched for the projectile Plagueis had chosen. It was massive. Almost half the size of a star destroyer.

Anakin growled, "Frag it, time to try something new."

With a flash, one of the panels in front of her came blasting off, ricocheting and making Plagueis dodge to miss it. Anakin lurched forward, and drove his hand into the control panel, around the shields display. She looked down at the readouts, and they were back. Not just back, but doubling, tripling...

Turbolaser blasts started flashing off their display, but the shields took every shot and increased in power. But Anakin looked like he'd aged a year in a few seconds...

'Get the satellite into the void.'

Tahiri scolded herself for losing concentration on her task, she set to work on the satellite. Visualising it, and bringing it into her mind. It was her entire world. And she could see the massive forces pushing back and forth at it. If there had been anything living inside of it, it'd been crumpled into a mess. She knew the Muun Sith was strong, but watching him holding his own against a power that was...

The power on the ground was unbelievably strong, it was like the planet had turned into an entire nexus of the Force, and whatever was fighting against them had full access and control of it. She tried tapping into it, but it didn't respond to her.

She needed to focus. Trying to remember how Anakin had done it earlier, she relaxed, and tried to slip into the Void she'd seen Jaina in. But it wasn't like following a path, it was like looking at a durasteel wall, and with no way to get in. She didn't even know where to start. She relaxed her mind, and the voices around them seemed like another world.

"Hey kid, we've got several weird missiles honing in on us. Can we take it?"

"The bombs are Stealth X killers, they either have a living or simulated ysalamiri on board, and another Force sensitive tracking. They'll kill us."

"If I may interrupt."

"Not now Golden Rod."

She tried to follow the path Anakin had taken the the void. It'd been so easy when he'd led her there, she slipped into her Vong sense - and the entire planet changed - it was...

"Oh, why does nobody listen to me at important moments, it's quite ridiculous. Master Anakin, I have downloaded a layout of the circuitry of the Being you're up against. It's really quite basic, adapted from a simple cleaning droid."

Anakin replied in less than a heartbeat. "Threepio, can you cut power, or trip a circuit breaker."

"From here. R2D2 is really the droid you want for that."

"Dad. It's time to fly like you've never flown before."

Han yelled back, "What do you think I've been doing?"

She felt the movement beside her, but ignored it and focused on her target, she hovered between both senses, trying to stay in between, like vibrating between both, and she suddenly knew how. Stretching out, she imagined the whole satellite, and...

It was massive. Way too big. With months of practice, she might be able to get something human size, but this was too much. It wasn't possible.

She opened her eyes, and looked at Anakin, he was by Threepio, his fingers playing around in his circuitry. And moments later, the turbolaser shots stopped.

"I believe you've tripped the cleaning droids power. It's won't take long to reboot."

Tahiri stared down at the planet through her normal eyes, and had to blink twice to make sure she was seeing the right thing. The lush blue and green world had been replaced by red, with orange oceans. It was like a switch had been flicked.

Anakin staggered to the view port, and breathed, "Oh thank the Force."

Tahiri asked, "You didn't know it was like that down there?"

Anakin shook his head, "There was a very good chance that we were about to kill a lot of people."

Han exclaimed, "You didn't have some fancy Force knowledge of what was down there?"

"Not enough to be sure."

And suddenly, whatever was down there rebooted, and she felt a massive Force push thrown against the satellite. But it was too late, the weight and speed of it was too much, and Tahiri watched from space as a massive cloud spewed out in every direction from the impact site, growing exponentially.

Beside her, Anakin collapsed. Utterly spent.

***...

"Can you at least get a confirmation that the messages are being sent to the correct places?"

"As far as I can tell they are going through."

Admiral Nek Bwua'tu stared at the doomed Millennium Falcon, it'd been jumping around his scanners, flashing and reappearing in another area. It was a very good trick, but his mutinous fleet had started wildly spewing fire into every possible area. Nobody on his bridge directly controlled the targeting, they'd co-ordinate the gunners themselves, but none were controlling his farce.

Could have he been hacked? A virus was relaying the wrong orders? Only he'd sent security forces to the gunner bays, and none of them had replied.

An alert from one of his crew alerted a high possibility that the Falcon had been found. Every laser focused on it, and utterly unleashed on that area. And he watched as they all hit. Hard.

The ship didn't flash up in another location, but it didn't disappear in a mass of plasma either. Instead it's shields glowed bright, getting brighter by the moment...

And Bwua'tu had to blink for a moment to be sure he wasn't seeing things. Regan, the planet, it was like somebody had changed the holovid channel. The lush farming planet, was now a red wasteland, devoid of life.

He had to give credit to his bridge crew, they didn't focus on the planet for long, one called out, "We're getting a response from the gunner decks, half of the crew are unconscious, the other half had been restrained, apparently they'd been very strong, co-ordinated, and firing at them with lifeless expressions."

"Has the Stealth X bombs been called back?"

"Doing that now."

Bwua'tu wanted to ask the obvious questions, what happened to them, but his bridge crew didn't have any more information than him. He figured the answers would be aboard the Falcon. But the chances of them trusting him were nil.

"Sir, we're receiving comms from the Millennium Falcon."

He felt his fur ruffling in puzzlement, this day really wasn't playing out how he'd anticipated.

"They are requesting docking permission, and a meeting with you."

This day really wasn't going according to plans.


End file.
